artificial muscles
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Researchers develop first artificial muscle that can 'remember' movement
We've seen ultrastrong artificial muscles and a freaky rubbery motor using the technology, but researchers at the University of Cambridge are taking things to another level. They've developed the first such "muscle" (which is actually made out of smooth plastic) that can learn and remember movement. It's similar to the way muscle memory works in nature -- if you spend time learning how to play the piano, eventually you'll be able to recall complex finger movements without much thought. The new material, dubbed polymeric electro-mechanical memory (EMM), can also recall movement without any prodding. It's also a step up from existing technology, which can only remember shapes. The discovery may eventually lead to more life-like implementations of artificial muscles for bio-medical uses, robotics (like the artificial fish above), and a slew of other fields. In particular, the researchers found that it could manipulated with low-voltage inputs, which bodes well for its use as something we can put in our bodies. [Illustration: Stoyan Smoukov]
Rubbery artificial muscles promise to make robots more lifelike
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.
Video: Robohopper gets wings, Icarus complex
Remember the tiny 5cm robot grasshopper that could leap like a superhero but had trouble landing its, um, landings? Well, it still hasn't figured out those basics, but its Swiss developers are already marching ahead with plans to endow it with a pair of wings and light awareness. Now described as a self-deploying microglider, the wannabe locust will be able to identify light sources and fly toward them, an act known as phototaxis, which will make it about as intelligent as your garden variety moth. All the same, you can't stick a camera on a moth and use it to search disaster areas for survivors ... or can you? Videos of the underlying tech can be found after the break. [Via Bot Junkie]
