China Education Equipment Purchasing Network News: According to recent news from Sina Technology, scientists at Harvard University in the United States have created a new type of flexible robot that is very soft and can move in a very narrow space like a worm by relying on peristalsis.
This is an increasingly popular research area: a recent development in the field of software robots. Scientists are constantly drawing inspiration from nature to create robot products that are far more flexible and versatile than those of traditional metal counterparts. The Harvard research team was led by chemist George M. Whitesides. They were inspired by squid, starfish and other animals without hard bones, and developed a small, four-legged rubber robot .
In recent years, scientists have been trying to deal with some sticky, sometimes seemingly strange robot design concepts. They hope to create a new type of robot that will be able to drill into those that rely on human or traditional robots. Start work in areas where you can reach, such as earthquake relief or battlefield reconnaissance. In an email interview, Matthew Walter, a robot expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "The flexibility of this kind of soft robots allows them to enter small spaces that traditional robots cannot reach."
Earlier this year, a team from Tufts University showed a worm robot developed by them that was only 10 centimeters long. It was made of silicone rubber and could crawl into a small ball and push it inside. Scroll forward.
The Harvard University research was conducted under the US Department of Defense's research funding project, and the progress was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. This soft robot is about 12.7 centimeters long, and the manufacturing process took two months. The limbs can be controlled independently, and the compressed air is input into the limbs by the manual or computer automatic control to drive accordingly. This gives this new type of robot an unmatched flexibility and can crawl or glide on the ground freely.
The researchers conducted a flexibility test on it: they placed a glass plate at a height of less than 1.9 from the ground, and let the little robot try to crawl underneath. As a result, scientists successfully controlled the robot 15 times back and forth through this extremely narrow gap. And in most cases, it takes less than 1 minute to pass through the bottom of the entire glass plate.
The researchers plan to further improve its speed performance, but they are pleased that it has not been damaged due to the constant expansion and contraction. Robert Shepherd, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, said: "It is strong enough." He pointed out that the robot can adapt to various surface materials and operate normally on it, including felt, grit, mud, and even jelly. However, it also has flaws: At present, the robot must rely on an external power cord for power supply. The scientists hope to find a way to realize the built-in power supply, so that it can be put into practical use.
Barry Trimmer, a neurobiologist at Tufts University, is a member of the university ’s worm robot project team. He said: "There are still many challenges to be faced in the field of software robots, and there is no shortcut to solving these problems. Let's go. "
Robot expert Carmel Majidi (Carmel Majidi) leads the software machinery laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. He believes that although this achievement is based on previous research foundations, it is still very innovative. He said: "This is a simple concept, but it seems that they mimic the biological movement patterns in nature."
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