Lobster Special

This article reviews that Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) biomimetic programs is a robotic lobster that is under development at Northeastern University in Boston. This crustacean look-alike may someday ply river and sea bottoms, at depths to 40 feet, seeking underwater mines and other military prey. The robotic lobster will have to operate for hours, accommodate irregular rivers and sea beds, maneuver at various depths, adapt to rough and tumble surf, handle changing currents, distinguish between rocks and mines, and send out a sonar alert when it detects a mine. The sensors, which are the width of a human hair, are fabricated using an internally developed process called NUMEM (for Northeastern University Metal Micromachining), which builds up the devices through a sequence of metal deposition, patterning and selective etching, and plating on a silicon substrate. Signals from both the antenna and the hair sensors are processed in the lobster’s microprocessor brain and used to control the bionic leg muscles.