The DARPA experience a soft chameleon robot
The robot is made of silicone. Inside it is a network of microchannels through which fluid or air can flow, which allows the robot to move, change color, temperature and shape. A soft robot will be able to squeeze in silently and imperceptibly where a normal robot of a comparable size will be well visible or will get stuck altogether. In addition to military applications, for soft systems with microchannels, there may be work in medicine.
The prototype shown in the video costs less than $ 100 and can move at a speed of about a meter per minute. If you fill its microchannels with liquid of the desired color and temperature, it becomes almost invisible in the optical and infrared range. And if you pump the fluorescent liquid into the microchannels, the robot will be able to glow in the dark. So far, all the fluid and air for the actuators are supplied from the outside. A real autonomous robot will have to carry batteries, pumps, tanks with liquids and other equipment on board.
Robot is developing a team at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. The first messages about him appeared in November last year, while he still did not know how to change color and temperature for disguise. Although the idea of a soft robot with a pneumatic or hydraulic drive is not new, as long as such robots look rather awkward. It is difficult enough to make such a design move quickly and elegantly. Nevertheless, soft constructions have many advantages, for example, flexible pneumatic “muscles” tend to be cheaper and develop a much larger specific power.
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For example, the Otherlab Ant Roach fully inflatable robot is capable of carrying a load of half a ton with its own weight of 35 kilograms (without a compressor or cylinders). The Sand Flea robot from Boston Dynamics, although not flexible, uses a pneumatic cylinder to jump.
The prototype shown in the video costs less than $ 100 and can move at a speed of about a meter per minute. If you fill its microchannels with liquid of the desired color and temperature, it becomes almost invisible in the optical and infrared range. And if you pump the fluorescent liquid into the microchannels, the robot will be able to glow in the dark. So far, all the fluid and air for the actuators are supplied from the outside. A real autonomous robot will have to carry batteries, pumps, tanks with liquids and other equipment on board.
Robot is developing a team at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. The first messages about him appeared in November last year, while he still did not know how to change color and temperature for disguise. Although the idea of a soft robot with a pneumatic or hydraulic drive is not new, as long as such robots look rather awkward. It is difficult enough to make such a design move quickly and elegantly. Nevertheless, soft constructions have many advantages, for example, flexible pneumatic “muscles” tend to be cheaper and develop a much larger specific power.
')
For example, the Otherlab Ant Roach fully inflatable robot is capable of carrying a load of half a ton with its own weight of 35 kilograms (without a compressor or cylinders). The Sand Flea robot from Boston Dynamics, although not flexible, uses a pneumatic cylinder to jump.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/149753/
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