Insect Inspired Robots Reading Answers

Mar 13, 2024

Insect Inspired Robots Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. Insect Inspired Robots Reading Answers have a total of 6 IELTS questions in total. This topic has 6 questions in which we have to fill up the black choosing appropriate words that are given in the passage.

Candidates should read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly to recognize synonyms, identify keywords, and answer the questions below. IELTS Reading practice papers, which feature topics such as Insect Inspired Robots Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading practice questions and answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Insect-Inspired robots: A Recent Conference Reports on Developments in Biorobotics

A tiny insect navigates its way across featureless salt-pans. A cockroach successfully works out how to scramble over an obstacle. The mantis shrimp scans its aquatic world through hyperspectral eyes. Using the most basic of equipment and brains tinier than a pinhead, insects constantly solve complex problems of movement, vision and navigation processing data that would challenge a supercomputer. How they do it is driving one of the most exciting new nelds of technology-biomimetics and biorobotics, the imitation of insect systems to control man-made machines. Delegates at a recent conference presented some outcomes of their work in this area.
Dr Alex Zelinsky suggested that the method by which wasps use landmarks to find their way back to the nest may one day be part of a system for navigating cars that 'know' where to go. A research team led by Dr Zelinsky has shown that a robot can navigate its way along 50 different landmarks by recognizing them individually using a panoramic camera. 'The inspiration came from biology, where wasps use a practice called "turn back and look'' to orient themselves as they emerge from its nest
By flying to and fro, they lock in images of the nest from different angles and perspectives, so they can recognize it again, he explained. The robot's panoramic camera logs the surrounding area and its key landmarks, which are then sorted in its computer according to how reliable they are as navigational aids. The landmarks are then scaled, from small to large, so that the robot can recognize whether it is getting closer to or further away from them. Their location is built into a map in its mind", which operates at different scales and instructs the robot whether to turn left or right at a particular mark. The technology provides a general way for a machine to navigate an unknown landscape.
For three decades, Professor Ruediger Wehner has journeyed from Switzerland to the Sahara desert where Catalyphis, a tiny ant with a brain weighing just 0.1 mg, performs acts of navigational genius when it leaves its nest, forages for food and returns successfully. Cataglyphis uses polarized light, caused when air molecules scatter light, to orient and steer itself. Wehner's team found the ant has a set of specialized photoreceptors along the upper rim of its eyes that detect polarized light, while other receptors perform different navigational tasks. As the sun moves, the ant notes its direction each time it leaves the nest and updates its internal compass. Using other eye receptors it stores a snapshot image of landmarks, close to the nest entrance in its eyes and compares this with what it sees as it returns. The ant also has a way of measuring distance traveled, while a path integrator periodically informs the ant of its current position relative to its point of departure. Rather than integrate all the information it receives in its brain, the ant actually performs a number of complex calculations in different organs. Like a supercomputer the ant has many separate subroutines going on simultaneously. Using the ant's ability to steer by polarized light and to store and reuse landscape images, Wehner and colleagues have built 'Sahabat', a small vehicle that uses polarisers and a digital CCD camera to store 360o images of landmarks to the ones in its memory.
Professor Robert Michelson had a different desert challenge - to design a flying robot that can not only navigate but also stay aloft and hover in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Drawing inspiration from insect flight, he has gone beyond nature to devise a completely new concept for a flying machine. The 'Entomopter' is a sort of double-ended dragonfly whose wings beat reciprocally. Michelson says that the flapping-wing design gives the craft unusually high lift compared with a fixed-wing flier, enabling it to fly slowly or hover in the thin Martian air- whereas a fixed-wing craft would have to move at more than 400 km/h and could not stop
Engineer Roger Quinn and entomologist Professor Roy Ritzmann are taking their inspiration from cockroaches. According to Quinn and Ritsmann, the ability of cockroaches to run very fast over rough terrain may one day give rise to a completely new all-terrain vehicle with six-legs, or maybe even wheel-like legs called whegs.
The key to the cockroach's remarkable cross-country performance lies partly in the fact that its legs do a lot of the thinking' without having to consult the brain. Quinn and Ritzmann are drawing on cockroach skills to create robotic walkers and control strategies that capture the remarkable capacity of these insects to traverse complex terrain and navigate safely toward goals while avoiding obstacles. The team has already designed a series of robots that run on six legs or on whegs, enabling them to handle surprisingly rugged terrain.
International experts believe there are tremendous opportunities for biorobotics. However, delegates at the conference had differing visions for the future of the science. While some were concerned that the initial applications of biorobotics may be military, others such as Dr Barbara Webb, predicted swarms of tiny cheap insect-like robots as society's cleaners and collectors. Sonja Kleinloge! hoped the study of the hyperspectral eyes if the mantis shrimp might yield remote sensors that keep watch over the environmental health of our oceans. Several delegates were concerned about the ethical implications of biorobotics, and urged that close attention be paid to this as the science and technologies develop.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 27 - 32

Reading Passage 3 has six sections A-F.
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-F.
NB You can use any letter more than once.

positive and negative possibilities for the use of insect-inspired robots

Answer: F
Supporting statement: “.......Several delegates were concerned about the ethical implications of biorobotics, and urged that close attention be paid to this as the science and technologies develop........”
Keywords: implications, ethical
Keyword Location: para F, line 7
Explanation: People have different opinions about the use of insect inspired robots. There were several concerns for the unethical use of these robots and some were excited.

how perceived size is used as an aid to navigation

Answer: B
Supporting statement: “.....computer according to how reliable they are as navigational aids. The landmarks are then scaled, from small to large, so that the robot can recognize whether it is getting closer to or further away from them..........”
Keywords: landmarks, navigational
Keyword Location: para B, line 12
Explanation: It is given that the robot's size varies to get the scaled landmarks so that they can recognize it.

an example of decision-making taking place in the limbs

Answer: E
Supporting statement: “.......The key to the cockroach's remarkable cross-country performance lies partly in the fact that its legs do a lot of the thinking' without having to consult the brain.......”
Keywords: performance, fact
Keyword Location: para E, line 5
Explanation: It is given that the decision making is done mostly by the legs of the cockroach. Brain is not always involved.

a description of a potential aid in space exploration

Answer: D
Supporting statement: “.......that can not only navigate but also stay aloft and hover in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Drawing inspiration from insect flight, he has gone beyond nature to devise a completely new concept for a flying machine.......”
Keywords: thin, devise
Keyword Location: para D, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the scientist has talked about the potential exploration of thin space in mars by a machine.

the range of skills that have inspired biorobotics

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “.......A tiny insect navigates its way across featureless salt-pans. A cockroach successfully works out how to scramble over an obstacle. The mantis shrimp scans its aquatic world through hyperspectral eyes.......”
Keywords: salt, pans
Keyword Location: para A, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the range of skills, such as insects navigating through salt-pans, and cockroaches to scramble over obstacles. There are a lot of examples in para A.

how a variety of navigational methods operate at the same time

Answer: C
Supporting statement: “.....a tiny ant with a brain weighing just 0.1 mg, performs acts of navigational genius when it leaves its nest, forages for food and returns successfully..........”
Keywords: genius, forages
Keyword Location: para C, line 2
Explanation: It is given that in para C many examples are mentioned that tell us that a variety of methods are used by insects to navigate.

Questions 33 - 36

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Which creatures see particularly well underwater?

Answer: MANTIS SHRIMP
Supporting statement: “......The mantis shrimp scans its aquatic world through hyperspectral eyes.......”
Keywords: mantis, eyes
Keyword Location: para A, line 2
Explanation: It is given that the mantis shrimp can be under the aquatic world through its hyperspectral eyes.

In addition to a computer, what technical equipment is fitted in Dr Zelinsky's robot?

Answer: PANORAMIC CAMERA
Supporting statement: “......A research team led by Dr Zelinsky has shown that a robot can navigate its way along 50 different landmarks by recognizing them individually using a panoramic camera.........”
Keywords: navigate, camera
Keyword Location: para A, line 3
Explanation: A computer and a panoramic camera was fitted in Dr Zelinsky's robot.

Where is the Cataglyphis ant found?

Answer: SAHARA DESERT
Supporting statement: “......the Sahara desert where Catalyphis, a tiny ant with a brain weighing just 0.1 mg, performs acts of navigational genius when it leaves its nest........”
Keywords: weighing, genius
Keyword Location: para C, line 1
Explanation: It is given that the cataglyphis ant leaves its nest on the way to trace its path back. They are found in the Sahara desert.

What atmospheric effect helps the Catalyphis ant to know its direction?

Answer: POLARIZED LIGHT
Supporting statement: “......Wehner's team found the ant has a set of specialized photoreceptors along the upper rim of its eyes that detect polarized light, while other receptors perform different navigational tasks.........”
Keywords: receptors, tasks
Keyword Location: para C, line 5
Explanation: It is given that the photoreceptors are present in the eyes of the ant that can detect polarized light.

Questions 37 - 40

Look at the following people and the list of robots below.
Match each person or people with the correct robot A-G.
Write the correct letter A-G.

List of robots

a robot that makes use of light as well as stored images for navigational purposes
a robot that can contribute to environmental health
a robot that can move over difficult surfaces
a robot that categorizes information from the environment according to its usefulness
a robot that can be used to clean surfaces and collect rubbish
a robot that has improved on the ability of the insect on which it i based
a robot that can replace soldiers in war

Dr Alex Zelinsky

Answer: D
Supporting statement: “...... The robot's panoramic camera logs the surrounding area and its key landmarks, which are then sorted in its computer according to how reliable they are as navigational aids.........”
Keywords: landmarks, navigational
Keyword Location: para B, line 8
Explanation: It is given that the robot has a panoramic camera that logs the important information from the surrounding area.

Professor Ruediger Wehner

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “......Wehner and colleagues have built 'Sahabat', a small vehicle that uses polarisers and a digital CCD camera to store 360o images of landmarks to the ones in its memory.........”
Keywords: vehicle, images
Keyword Location: para C, line 16
Explanation: It is given that professor Wehner built a robot that can use polarizers and a camera that can store pictures to find paths.

Professor Robert Michelson

Answer: F
Supporting statement: “......to design a flying robot that can not only navigate but also stay aloft and hover in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Drawing inspiration from insect flight, he has gone beyond nature to devise a completely new concept for
a flying machine. ........”
Keywords: flight, concept
Keyword Location: para D, line 1
Explanation: It is given that professor robert has designed a robot that can navigate and also stay hover in the thin atmosphere of mars.

Roger Quinn and Professor Roy Ritzmann

Answer: C
Supporting statement: “......Quinn and Ritzmann are drawing on cockroach skills to create robotic walkers and control strategies that capture the remarkable capacity of these insects to traverse complex terrain.......”
Keywords: robotic, traverse
Keyword Location: para E, line 6
Explanation: It is given that the scientists quinn and ritzmann have been working on the cockroach skills to create a robot that can walk on complex surfaces easily.

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