Worms, Springs, and Soft Robots: Tiny Creatures Inspire Giant Leaps

Researchers at Georgia Tech recently An impressive achievement revealedA 5-inch, soft robot that can save itself 10 feet in the air-the height of the basketball collar-for any legs. The design was inspired by modest threads, which is the thinnest roundworm of human hair that could jump several times his body.

By disk of her body in narrow reservoirs, the worm stores flexible energy and then suddenly released it, as she heads towards the sky or back like the acrobatic gymnastics. Engineers simulated this movement. Their “Softjm” robot is basically a flexible silicone rod with the harsh spine of carbon fiber. Depending on how it bends, it can jump forward or back – although it does not have wheels or legs.

At work, raised the nematode -inspired robot coils like the person who sits squatting, and then excessively jumping. The high -speed camera shows how the worm gives its head and falls behind the middle of its body to leave back, then relax and retreat in the tail to jump forward.

Georgia Tech found that these narrow bends – usually a problem with hoses or cables – let the worm and a robot store much more. As one of the researchers noticed, the straw or covered hoses is not feasible, but the worm resulting is like a loaded spring. In the laboratory, soft robot Cloned This trick: It is a “pinch” in its middle or tail, and swinging, then it is launched in an explosion (about a tenth of a second) to rise in the air.

Soft robots in height

Soft robots are a young field, but it grows quickly and often takes a sermon from nature. Unlike solid metal machines, soft robots consist of flexible materials that can pressure, stretch and adapt to their surroundings. Early landmarks in this field include Octopot at Harvard University – An independent robot made entirely of silicone and fluid channels, with no solid parts, inspired by the octopus muscles. Since then, the engineers have built a set of soft machines: from the reptiles similar to the worms and the abandoned swings to a “external mare” that can be worn and the vineyards -like robots.

For example, YALE researchers created a soft robot inspired by turtles, as their legs turned between flexible fins and fixed “wild legs” depending on whether it was swimming or walking. In UCSB, scientists have made a vineyard-like robot that grows towards light using only “skin” of light-it extends literally across narrow spaces like the plant trunk. These innovations and other vital inspired innovations show how soft materials can create new movement patterns.

In general, supporters say soft robots can go to places where traditional robots cannot. The American National Science Foundation notes that soft adaptive machines “explore the spaces that could not be accessed by traditional robots” – even within the human body. Some soft robots contain programming “skins” that change hardness or color to mix or fist objects. Engineers also explore the techniques of Origami/Kirigami, Memory Memory Poles, and other tricks so that these robots can re -configure them while flying.

Flexible engineering

Make a soft robot move like an animal that comes with great challenges. Without solid joints or engines, designers must rely on the properties of materials and smart engineering. For example, Jumper’s Georgia Tech had to include a carbon fiber column inside its rubber body to make the spring work strong enough. Merging sensors and control systems is also difficult. Pennsylvania engineers also indicate that traditional electronics will be cruel and will freeze a soft robot in its place.

To make the small rescue robot “smart”, they had to spread carefully flexible circles throughout the body so that it could bend. Even finding energy sources is more difficult: some soft robots use external magnetic fields or compressed air because carrying a heavy battery will decorate them.

Another obstacle is the exploitation of appropriate physics. The Nematode-Robot team learned that Kinks already helps. In the normal rubber tube, Kink stops at the speed of flow; But in a soft worm, it increases internal pressure, allowing more bending before launching it. By experimenting with simulation operations and even balloon models filled with water, the researchers showed that their flexible body can carry a lot of flexible energy when bending, and then released it in one quick jump. The result is great: the rest, the robot can jump 10 feet, frequently, simply by bending the spine. These breakthroughs – find ways for place and Release Energy in rubber materials – is a typical of soft robot engineering.

Pants and assistants in the real world

What are all these soft robots? In principle, they can handle very dangerous or embarrassing situations for solid machines. In disaster areas, for example, soft robots can be wrinkled under the rubble or in the collapsed buildings to find the survivors. Pennsylvania showed a soft, magnetic creeping magnetic that can move in narrow debris or even move via vascular channels.

In medicine, soft microscopic robots can provide medications directly in the body. In one of the studies conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he imagined a fine, soft robot of the thread floating through the arteries and pure strokes, and may treat strokes without open surgery. Harvard University scientists work on external structures that can also be worn soft – a lightweight weighted cover helped patients als to lift the shoulder, which immediately improves their movement.

Space agencies also look forward to soft lesions. The wheels can stumble on the sand or rocks, but the navigation robot can be a cellar on drilling and sand dunes. NASA imagines even the players of the moon for the moon and the ice satellites. In one of the concepts, a robot of football called Sparrow Jets Steam (of boiled ice) will use several miles across Europe or Encladus. In the low gravity of these satellites, a small leap has a long way-scientists note that a robot leap on Earth can carry a hundred meters on Encladus. The idea is that dozens of these employees can wander through the strange terrain “with complete freedom of travel” as Rovers stop with wheels. Returning to Earth, future players can help in the tasks in search and rescue by jumping over rivers, clay or unstable land that will stop traditional robots.

Soft robots also find work in industry and agriculture. NSF notes that they may become safe assistants on the factory floors or on farms, because they comply if a person is on the way. The researchers even built the soft and gentle chosen fruits without bruises. The elasticity of soft machines means that they can work in very small or flexible places for solid devices.

In the end, experts believe that soft robots will mainly change many fields. From worms to the wearable suits to lunar voltage, this research thread shows how the study of small creatures can result in large jumps in technology.