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Interview with:
Brian Chan SB '02
Brian Chan SB '02, a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering and works in the Hatsopoulos Microfluids Laboratory studying Low-Reynolds number flows. He has been a key investigator and inventor in the Robostrider and RoboSnail studies of movement. His design awards include the 2.007 Contest Whitelaw Prize for originality and design for a unique four-legged walking robot.. Why study snail motion? We are studying snail locomotion because it is a unique way of moving over solid surfaces. Unlike most other animals and machines, snails move without the need for rigid mechanisms, wheels, or hinges, and they can traverse a wide range of challenging terrains, even climbing up smooth vertical walls or upside-down across ceilings. The special properties of snail mucus and foot structure allow snails to adhere to vertical and inverted surfaces, even while moving. What do RoboSnail and Robostrider have in common? Robosnail and Robostrider were built to show that what snails and water striders do in nature can be done by machines. They are bare-bones prototypes that duplicate snail and strider motion in the simplest form possible. Each took several months of building, refining, and simplifying. Since they do not have steering or control (besides on/off), they are not robots per se, but we call them Robosnail and Robostrider because these names give them more character. I was inspired to start the Robosnail project when we saw snails inhabiting the aquarium tank where we kept live striders for the water strider research. I needed a course project for my fluids class taught by John Bush, so I decided to study snail locomotion - Robosnail was born. Snails and striders move using very different mechanisms, but it is interesting to note that they are both very capable of moving on land (striders can also walk) and on the water's surface (small snails do this upside-down). What draws a mechanical engineer like you to biological research? As long as I can remember, I've always had a great interest in invertebrates, especially insects. As a kid I always caught them, and I would keep them in jars on my shelf. Two years ago I was lucky enough to be drawn into the water strider project when my friend David Hu told me about the research he and Prof. John Bush were doing on the mathematics of locomotion. As a long-time collector of insects, I felt right at home catching and raising water striders with Dave. I officially became part of the strider project when Prof. Bush asked me to design a mechanical strider - Robostrider. As I mentioned earlier, Robosnail just started as a course project, and I am grateful that my supervisor, Prof. Anette Hosoi, is always open to new ideas and that she turned my small course project into a full-fledged research project. Since then, Catherine Koveal and Susan Ji have joined the team, working on many experiments, rebuilding Robosnail, and writing computer simulations of snail motion.
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Copyright ©2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
