Imagine sending tiny, bat-inspired robots into the heart of a disaster zone, where humans dare not tread. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s closer to reality than you might think. Search and rescue missions often unfold in environments that are not only treacherous but downright deadly—think extreme weather, jagged terrain, or air thick with smoke and dust. These conditions make it perilous for human rescuers, who often risk their lives to save others. But what if we could deploy robots instead? That’s exactly what Nitin J. Sanket, a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), is working on. His team has developed palm-sized flying robots that mimic bats, using ultrasound to navigate and detect obstacles within a two-meter radius. But here’s where it gets controversial: while drones are already used in search and rescue, Sanket’s robots take inspiration from nature, raising questions about whether biomimicry is the future of robotics—or just a passing trend.
Sanket’s journey into this field began with a fascination for aerial robots and their potential in real-world applications. During his PhD, a challenge from his advisor to create the smallest possible robot sparked his interest in biology-inspired design. ‘We had to reimagine what a drone could be,’ Sanket explains. ‘Biology does this way better than we can today. Insects and birds navigate with limited computing power and basic sensors, yet they perform incredible feats of flight.’ This led him to explore how nature’s designs could revolutionize robotics, culminating in his PhD thesis. Later, he even prototyped a robotic beehive for pollination, though he admits that idea was a bit of a moonshot. Now, his focus is on search and rescue, where biology-based robots could make an immediate impact.
The challenge? Building robots with advanced sensors and flight capabilities without making them too large, costly, or energy-intensive. Sanket’s team turned to ultrasound sensors, like those in automatic faucets, for their low power consumption. However, the propellers created noise that interfered with the sensors. And this is the part most people miss: they solved this by mimicking bats’ adaptive tissues, which modulate sound. ‘Bats have special tissues in their nose, ears, and mouth that change thickness and density to control how they hear and emit sound,’ Sanket says. Inspired by this, they designed a 3D-printed structure to reshape sound waves, effectively solving the noise problem.
Now, with functional robots in hand, Sanket’s team is tackling their next hurdle: increasing speed. ‘As scientists, we often try to mimic the human brain,’ he reflects. ‘But we overlook the remarkable abilities of smaller creatures like insects and birds, which excel in navigation despite their tiny size. We should think more like scientists and less like pure engineers.’ This perspective raises a thought-provoking question: Are we limiting robotics by focusing too much on human-centric designs? Sanket’s work challenges us to look to nature for answers—and invites us to rethink what’s possible in robotics.
What do you think? Is biomimicry the future of robotics, or is it just a niche approach? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
