自然界充满了超敏感的感知和敏捷的身体转变的例子,以实现高效的捕食以及对复杂环境的非凡适应。捕蝇,作为一个代表性的例子,可以有效地检测昆虫最微小的物理刺激并立即做出反应,激发了许多机器人设计和应用。然而,当前的机器人捕蝇在再现超敏感的昆虫触摸感知方面面临挑战。此外,用机器人捕蝇快速和完全覆盖的活昆虫捕获仍然难以捉摸。在这里,我们报告了具有超灵敏“毛状体”和双稳态快速响应“瓣”的机器人捕蝇的新颖设计。我们的结果表明,所提出的机器人捕蝇的“毛状体”可以检测并响应0.45mN的外部刺激和重量为0.12g的飞蜂的微小触摸。一旦“毛状体”被触发,双稳态的“裂片”可以在0.2s内立即闭合,形成一个完全覆盖的笼子来困住蜜蜂,并在测试后重新打开以释放它们。我们介绍设计,建模,优化,以及机器人捕蝇的验证,并设想这种技术在超敏感感知中的更广泛的应用,快速反应抓取,和生物医学工程研究。
Nature abounds with examples of ultra-sensitive perception and agile body transformation for highly efficient predation as well as extraordinary adaptation to complex environments. Flytraps, as a representative example, could effectively detect the most minute physical stimulation of insects and respond instantly, inspiring numerous robotic designs and applications. However, current robotic flytraps face challenges in reproducing the ultra-sensitive insect-touch perception. In addition, fast and fully-covered capture of live insects with robotic flytraps remains elusive. Here we report a novel design of a robotic flytrap with an ultra-sensitive \'trichome\' and bistable fast-response \'lobes\'. Our results show that the \'trichome\' of the proposed robotic flytrap could detect and respond to both the external stimulation of 0.45 mN and a tiny touch of a flying bee with a weight of 0.12 g. Besides, once the \'trichome\' is triggered, the bistable \'lobes\' could instantly close themselves in 0.2 s to form a fully-covered cage to trap the bees, and reopen to set them free after the tests. We introduce the design, modeling, optimization, and verification of the robotic flytrap, and envision broader applications of this technology in ultra-sensitive perception, fast-response grasping, and biomedical engineering studies.