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Watch this soft robot walk through snow and get squished by a car
Soft robots aren't just supremely flexible; they can take quite a bruising, too. If you need proof, a team of Harvard and Cornell researchers has developed a rugged soft robot that can survive conditions which would wreck stiffer machines. As you'll see in the video below, the automaton's silicone shell has no trouble wading through snow, walking over fire and enduring the crush of a car's tires. It's a bit of a workhorse as well, with upgraded pneumatics that can carry loads up to about 18 pounds. This is still early technology -- the bot doesn't move quickly, and its battery lasts a mere two hours -- but it's proof that squishy robots are well-suited to working in dangerous situations.
Soft robot 'slug' oozes along with air pressure
As MIT proved recently with its squishy artificial fish, robots don't need to be rigid to propel themselves along (or freak us out). A company called Super-Releaser has applied the same logic for Glaucus, its new open-source soft robot. Unlike its swimming counterpart, this bot "walks" across land using air pressure to pump up different parts of its limbs in sequence. Admittedly, that results in a locomotion speed similar to the sea slug it's named after (see the video after the break) and it requires a tether. Still, the company is developing much more practical applications that use the same tech, like orthotic cuffs for rehabilitation and prosthetic sleeves for amputees. You can even 3D print a bot yourself using Thingiverse files and (slowly) terrify your friends.
MIT's robot fish is nearly as speedy and squishy as the real thing
Robot fish are typically pale imitations at best -- even when they move quickly, they don't move all that gracefully. MIT's new soft robotic fish should be much closer to the real animal, however. Instead of relying on rigid joints and motors to swim, the new fish wiggles its tail fin by inflating a channel with carbon dioxide. The switch to pressure-based power results in not just more natural-looking movement, but the kind of explosive energy that you'd expect from an undersea critter; a strong CO2 blast will turn the robot 100 degrees in an instant. The current design is built more for speed than longevity, but MIT's researchers foresee a longer-lasting model that could follow schools of real fish and study them without drawing attention.
Turing machine built from artificial muscles may lead to smart prosthetics
In the hierarchy of computing hardware, artificial muscle doesn't really even register: it's usually a target for action, not the perpetrator. The University of Auckland has figured out a way to let those muscles play a more active role. Its prototype Turing machine uses a set of electroactive polymer muscles to push memory elements into place and squeeze piezoresistive switches, performing virtually any calculation through flexing. The proof-of-concept computer won't give silicon circuits any threat when it's running at just 0.15Hz and takes up as much space as a mini fridge, but the hope is to dramatically speed up and shrink down future iterations to where there are advanced computers that occupy the same size as real muscles. Researchers ultimately envision smart prosthetic limbs with near-natural reflexes, completely soft robots with complex gestures and even a switch from digital to analog computing for some tasks. Although we're quite a distance away from any of those muscle-bound ideas becoming everyday realities, it's good to at least see them on the horizon.
Harvard soft robot explodes into action, jumps 30 times its height (video)
Harvard University has pushed its soft robot concept in strange directions, but an exploding robot? That takes the cake. A new three-legged, silicone-based variant of the robot is filled with methane and oxygen that, when jolted with electricity, explode and trigger violent pressure that pushes the limbs off the ground. As you'd imagine, the results weren't exactly timid during testing -- the example robot jumped over 30 times its body height, and it would have jumped higher if not for additional tubing holding it down in the lab. The power easily eclipses that of pure air, and could be vital to rescue robots or other public safety machines that could very literally leap to someone's aid. Don't anticipate exploding automatons on the streets anytime soon. We'll just be glad that, if they do arrive, they'll be trying to help us rather than kill us.
DARPA's low-cost silicone robot cloaks like a chameleon, treks like a snail (video)
Remember those colorful sticky hands that you used to buy for a quarter from grocery store vending machines? Yeah, this is kind of like that -- except that it's a freaking robot. DARPA is currently working to develop low-cost silicone robots that use both air and fluid to control movement, color and temperature. In the following video, you can see one of these soft contraptions as it journeys onto a bed of rocks and then uses colored liquid to blend into its surroundings. Don't expect this glorious sticky hand to break any land speed records, however; the silicone bot can travel approximately 40 meters per hour, or up to 67 meters per hour without the fluid. (Even the 30 second video, which goes at a snail's pace, has been sped up five fold.) The current demonstration implements a tethered solution as the robot's source of power, pumps, gasses and liquids, but future developments may allow for a self-contained system. Further, rather than improving the robot's speed, its developers will instead focus on its flexibility as a means for navigating within tight spaces. Be sure to peep the video below, and we think you'll agree that DARPA's creation easily puts those sticky hands to shame.
Harvard-designed 'soft robot' shows you how low it can go (video)
It's the stuff of slow-moving robopocalyptic nightmares: a 'soft robot' designed by a team of Harvard scientists that draws inspiration from invertebrates like worms and starfish. The wired 'bot is made from a flexible elastomer material that allows it to squeeze into spaces that are inaccessible for more traditional robots. Inside are chambers that inflate and deflate, allowing the thing to undulate forward. Definitely check out the robot in action after the break.
