Here’s what happens when a GoPro goes low — really low, as in insect height.
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a tiny robotic camera and attached the backpack-like device onto a live beetle, offering up a unique view of the world and showcasing technology for improving wireless vision at a small scale.
The results were published Wednesday in Science Robotics.
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The camera streams video to a smartphone at 1 to 5 frames per second and sits on a mechanical arm that can pivot 60 degrees, according to the UW. This allows a viewer to capture a high-resolution, panoramic shot or track a moving object. And at just 250 milligrams, or one-tenth the weight of a playing card, the insect carrier expends a minimal amount of energy.
“We have created a low-power, low-weight, wireless camera system that can capture a first-person view of what’s happening from an actual live insect or create vision for small robots,” said Shyam Gollakota, a UW associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and senior author of the study. “Vision is so important for communication and for navigation, but it’s extremely challenging to do it at such a small scale. As a result, prior to our work, wireless vision has not been possible for small robots or insects.”
Cameras like those used in smartphones require a lot of power to capture wide-angle, high-resolution photos, and the batteries needed to support them make the overall system too big and heavy for insects — or insect-sized robots.
The camera and arm are controlled via Bluetooth from a smartphone from a distance up to 120 meters away. Two different types of beetles were employed in the study — a death-feigning beetle and a Pinacate beetle.
Researchers mimic animal vision with a tiny, ultra-low-power black-and-white camera that can sweep across a field of view with the help of a mechanical arm. The arm moves when the team applies a high voltage, which makes the material bend and move the camera to the desired position. Unless the team applies more power, the arm stays at that angle for about a minute before relaxing back to its original position.
The movements are similar to how people can keep their head turned in one direction for only a short period of time before returning to a more neutral position.
“This is the first time that we’ve had a first-person view from the back of a beetle while it’s walking around. There are so many questions you could explore, such as how does the beetle respond to different stimuli that it sees in the environment?” Iyer said. “But also, insects can traverse rocky environments, which is really challenging for robots to do at this scale. So this system can also help us out by letting us see or collect samples from hard-to-navigate spaces.”
