Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!sgiblab!darwin.sura.net!rouge!ek
From: ek@swamp.cacs.usl.edu (Enrique Vicente Kortright)
Subject: Insect robots
Message-ID: <1993Nov22.221615.23477@usl.edu>
Sender: anon@usl.edu (Anonymous NNTP Posting)
Organization: The Center for Advanced Computer Studies
Distribution: comp.robotics
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1993 22:16:15 GMT
Lines: 24

We are interested in references to research and development work
on insect-like robots. We would like to build an insect robot
and use it to prototype strategies for coordination based on neural
networks and genetic algorithms. Specifically,

- Is there a robot that we can easily replicate (inexpensively)?
- What is the architecture of the legs of such a robot and
  how are the movements of the legs coordinated?
- Is there any work on leg movement by "muscles"?
- What kinds of processors are suitable for building self-contained
  robots of this kind?
- How successful is the use of neural networks to achieve coordination?
- Since coordination in an actual insect (or any organism for that matter)
  seems to be low-level and localized to specific zones, how is hierarchical
  coordination achieved? How are groups of neural networks coordinated?
- How are the characteristics of the robot encoded in the neural network
  used for coordination?

We would really appreciate any pointers on how to build even a simple
insect robot.

Regards,

Enrique Kortright      and        Jiong Chen
