The new type of robot combines traditional and soft-bodied robots, which make them safer but stronger. Once mounted, it can change formation and movement without being attached to a power source or air.
Progress on soft robots may in some unspecified time in the future allow robots to figure with humans, helping them lift heavy objects or get them out of danger. As a step toward that future, Stanford University researchers are building a substitution family of robots accessible, by lending features to traditional, safe robots while maintaining the flexibility to maneuver and alter formation.
"The obvious limit for soft robots is that they need to be attached to a bulky compressor or connected to a wall, which prevents them from moving," said Nathan Usevitch, a technologist at Stanford. So, we pondered: What if we keep a similar amount of air inside the robots all the time?
From that expected value, researchers ended up with a soft human robot that might change its composition, allowing it to capture and manipulate objects and to collapse into uncontrollable processes. Their introduction is described during a paper published on March 18 in Robotic Science.
"The weird instance of this robot I'm giving people is Baymax from the massive Hero 6 movie mixed with Transformers.
A combination of multiple robots:
The simplest form of this squishy robot is a light tube that runs on small, horizontal tiny machines. One machine holds the two ends of the tube at the same time; the other two are drained toward the tube, changing the shape of the robot by moving its sections (corners). Investigators call it an "isoperimetric robot" because, although the shape changes dramatically, the overall length of the edges - and the amount of air inside - remains the same.
An isoperimetric robot is the offspring of three types of robots: soft robots, truss robots, and interactive robots. Soft robots are simple and versatile, truss robots have geometric patterns that can change the composition and integrated robots of small robots that work together, making them extremely robust considering single-component failures.
"We are primarily using a soft formation with traditional motors," said Sean Follmer, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and senior columnist. "It makes for a very rousing category of robots that blends the many benefits of soft robots with all the expertise we have about the best robots."
To create a more sophisticated type of robot, researchers simply put several triangles together. By integrating the shifting of unlike motors, they can produce a robot to carry out different behaviors, such as taking a ball by placing it in three directions or turning the center of the robot so that it can bend.
"The supreme insight we have to examine is that to create motion with a huge, soft pneumatic robot, you don't really need to pump air in and out," said Elliot Hawkes, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and senior paper author. "You can use the air you still have and move it just with these quiet motors; this technique works well and lets our robot to move swiftly."
From the outer space to your living room:
The field of soft robots is small, which means that people are still getting the best applications for this new creation. Their safe yet durable softness can make them useful in homes and workplaces, where classical robots can cause destruction. Squishy robots are also attractive as tools for disaster response.
Other possibilities for isoperimetric robots can be seen in the world. "This robot can be very functional for space inspections - chiefly since it can be transported in a small package and run without being mounted," said Zachary Hammond, a Stanford graduate engineering student and lead author of the paper, Usevitch. "On another planet, it can use its power that alters the evolution of complex surfaces, pitched into tight spaces and spreads obstacles."
In the meantime, researchers are trying different shapes of their adhesive robot and are considering placing it in water to see if it can swim. They also look at the most sophisticated new types of robots, each with its own attributes and pros.
"This study highlights the power of thinking how to design and build robots in new ways," said Allison Okamura, a professor of mechanical engineering and a paper author. "The design of robotics is expanding with this kind of scheme and is something we would like to assists a lot in the robotic field."
This research is capitalized by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency.
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