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Tokyo University of Science shows off robotic suit powered by pneumatic artificial muscles (video)

Richard Lai — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:02:00 -0400

What can one do with a robot suit? Well, it's certainly not limited to just lifting sacks of rice, but that was exactly what we got to do at CEATEC courtesy of Koba Lab from Tokyo University of Science. First seen in 2009, the magic behind this 9kg kit are the pair of pneumatic artificial muscles (aka McKibben artificial muscles) on the back, which are made by industrial equipment manufacturer Kanda Tsushin. When pressurized with air using electrical components from KOA Corporation, the lightweight, loosely-woven PET tubes contract and consequently provide support to the user's back, shoulders and elbows. As such, our arms were able to easily hold two more sacks of rice (making it a total of 50kg) until the demonstrator deflated the muscles. Check out our jolly hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: Tokyo University of Science shows off robotic suit powered by pneumatic artificial muscles

Filed under: Robots

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ViviTouch haptic technology hands-on: electroactive polymer giving a 'high definition feel'

Richard Lai — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 10:01:00 -0400

Haptic feedback isn't exactly something that'd blow people's mind these days, with most mobile devices and gaming controllers already packing a little vibrator to spice up one's gaming experience. While these motors do the job just fine for delivering the sensation of large engines and explosions, their monotonic performance and relatively high minimum output threshold means they can't reproduce finer vibration. For instance, you wouldn't be able to feel a guitar string fade away after a strum, nor would you feel the finer end of a spring recoil. This is where Bayer MaterialScience's ViviTouch -- previously dubbed Reflex -- tries to fill the void.

For those who aren't familiar, the magic behind ViviTouch is its electroactive polymer (or EAP in short) -- imagine a thin sheet that consists of two electrode layers sandwiching a dielectric elastomer film, and when a voltage is applied, the two attracting electrodes compress the entire sheet. This slim, low-powered ViviTouch actuator module can be placed underneath an inertial mass (usually a battery) on a tray, thus amplifying the haptic feedback produced by the host device's audio signal between 50Hz and 300Hz (with a 5ms response time).

Gallery: ViviTouch haptic technology hands-on

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Rubbery artificial muscles promise to make robots more lifelike

Donald Melanson — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:22:00 -0400

Some robots may already look pretty lifelike, but it's still quite a different story when they're actually moving, when all the mechanical parts inside make themselves known with some unmistakable, robot-like movements. Some researchers at New Zealand's Auckland Bioengineering Institute now have one possible solution to that problem, however -- a motor with none of the usual moving parts. Instead, the rubbery, Cronenberg-esque contraption relies on some electroactive structures that can stretch by more than 300 percent, and expand and contract when a voltage is applied. While things are obviously still very early, it's conceivable that robots could eventually be built entirely out of these artificial muscles -- or, as lead researcher Dr. Iain Anderson succinctly puts it, "the future is soft." Video after the break.

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Artificial Muscle ramps up production -- expect touchscreens that push back in 2011

Sean Hollister — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:01:00 -0400

Last we heard from Artificial Muscle, the company was trying to convince hospitals, cell phone manufacturers and more that its technology -- a silicon film that expands and contracts with an applied voltage -- would provide a real sense of touch to their cold, hard touchscreens. On at least three counts, it has succeeded. The San Jose Mercury News reports that two cell phone manufacturers are planning Artificial Muscle-based products in 2011, and that an "electronics entertainment product" will be released this Christmas. The company also plans to produce 1 million of the electronic actuators per month to anticipate further demand. While the Mercury News notes that Artificial Muscle's product isn't the holy grail of haptic feedback -- the entire screen stiffens when pressed, not just the spot you touch -- its adoption means the company may have set events in motion to ultimately reach that goal.

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Artificial muscles let cadavers (and someday paralyzed humans) wink with the best of 'em

Joseph L. Flatley — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:29:00 -0500

The above contraption, aside from looking really uncomfortable, is the latest advance in electroactive polymer artificial muscle technology. Using soft acrylic or silicon layered with carbon grease, EPAMs contract like muscle tissue when current is applied -- making 'em just the ticket for use in UC Davis's Eyelid Sling. Billed as the "first-wave use of artificial muscle in any biological system," the device is currently letting cadavers (and, eventually paralyzed humans) blink -- an improvement over current solutions for the non-blinking, which include either transplanting a leg muscle into the face or suturing a small gold weight into the eyelid. Look for the technology to become available for patients within the next five years.

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Micromuscle makes microrobots that can live inside you

Tim Stevens — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:54:00 -0400

While artificial muscles stand poised to bring a new world of tactility to touchable devices, there's still hope they might fulfill some bigger, loftier goals -- like helping to save lives. That's a large part of where the research at Micromuscle is focused, creating a series of electroactive polymers that do impressive things when placed under small voltages, changing shape and even volume as demonstrated in the Engineering TV clip embedded below. In it you can see a few examples of these things folding into complex, golden structures on their own accord, but the main application seems to be things like catheters that can steer themselves through the bloodstream, drug delivery mechanisms that can deploy multiple substances on command, and even microscopic robots that can pick up tiny things and move them tiny distances. You know what this means: robot armageddon might actually start from the inside.

[Via Engineering TV]

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Artificial Muscle makes touchy devices burlier

Tim Stevens — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:44:00 -0400

In the future we envision artificial muscle driving our cybernetic soldiers and helping to repair our fleshier ones. In the present, though, it seems the tech is starting a little smaller, at least it is in the case of Artificial Muscle (the company), which has developed tech enabling a silicon film to expand or contract when a voltage is applied to it. It's currently being used to create small pumps and linear actuators and the like, and is now is being pitched as a solution for feedback in touch-sensitive devices. The silicon film is thin enough to be inserted beneath a touchpad or touchscreen, moving the surface appropriately depending on what you're stroking on-screen as shown in a video demonstration below. Impressively this tech will only cost "a couple dollars" to add to any given device, meaning even cheap netbooks could start coming with fidgity touchpads soon. Now that is progress.

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UCLA researchers create self-healing, power-generating artificial muscle

Darren Murph — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:58:00 -0400

We've seen self-healing materials and artificial arms, but a team of researchers hailing from UCLA have taken two fabulous ideas and wed them together to create "an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity." Put simply, the contracting / expanding of the material can generate a small electric current, which can be "captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery." The scientists have relied on carbon nanotubes as electrodes rather than metal-based films that typically fail after extended usage, and in an ideal world, the research could eventually lead to (more) walking robots and highly advanced prosthetics. Integrate an AC adapter in there and we're sold.

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Misc

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