Muscle Locomotion: Millimeter Sized Muscles Provide Locomotion For Small Robotics
8 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Researchers from the [URL="http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/0630biobots2_RashidBashir.html"]University of Illinois[/URL] have produced a new generation of muscle-powered biological robots, or “bio-bots,” that can be stimulated to walk using electrical impulses. These robots not only represent a significant advancement in the field of soft biorobotics, but they may also eventually have uses in a variety of applications including drug screening and delivery systems. The study has been published in [URL="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/06/26/1401577111"][I]PNAS[/I][/URL].
The marriage of soft robotics with living biological components, such as cells and tissues, permits the development of machines that are able to [URL="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/06/26/1401577111"]sense and respond[/URL] to a variety of controlled environmental stimuli. “We’re trying to integrate these principles of engineering with biology in a way that can be used to design and develop biological machines and systems for environmental and medical applications,” said lead researcher Rashid Bashir in a [URL="http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/0630biobots2_RashidBashir.html"]news-release[/URL].
In order to produce these centimeter-scale robots that are capable of locomotion, the team combined 3D printing with tissue engineering. Bashir’s group first [URL="http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/0630biobots2_RashidBashir.html"]demonstrated[/URL] the capabilities of this technology with a biorobot produced using living heart cells from rats. As the cells contracted, the robot would move, or walk, along a surface in fluid. Unfortunately, however, these robots were limited in their usefulness given the fact that the cells were constantly beating, so they couldn’t switch the robot off.
The researchers started off by using the native configuration of the musculoskeletal system as a rough blueprint for their designs. They first used 3D printing to generate a backbone of strong yet supple hydrogel and then attached a strip of engineered mammalian skeletal muscle via posts which behaved like tendons. Using electrical stimulation they were then able to trigger the cells in the muscle to contract, resulting in locomotion. By adjusting the frequency of the pulses, the team was able to manipulate the speed of movement.[/QUOTE]
[video=youtube;skCzl7FlM34]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skCzl7FlM34[/video]
[URL="http://www.iflscience.com/technology/researchers-develop-muscle-powered-biorobots"]SOURCE[/URL]
it twitches....
[QUOTE=Sableye;45269434]it twitches....[/QUOTE]
You'll find that killer robots will instinctively twitch whenever they have sustained a most-certainly-fatal injury right as the protagonist has their back turned.
This guy just happened to have a camera taped to the back of his head.
[QUOTE=Sableye;45269434]it twitches....[/QUOTE]
All muscle twitches. It's all about controlling those twitches and building thousands or hundreds of thousands in unison to mimic human muscle to give full motor movement like you see in a human
One step closer to robot arms.
[QUOTE=DohEntertainmen;45270442]One step closer to robot arms.[/QUOTE]
the power of a jackhammer packed into every limb
[QUOTE=noobcake;45270575]the power of a jackhammer packed into every limb[/QUOTE]
I can't wait for the inevitable news story on someone performing that move from Robocop/Deus Ex.
Hmm so it's not fully synthetic, relying on bits of actual muscles to work. That's pretty cool, but I wonder when they'll figure this out synthetically.
[QUOTE=Matt2468rv;45272293]Hmm so it's not fully synthetic, relying on bits of actual muscles to work. That's pretty cool, but I wonder when they'll figure this out synthetically.[/QUOTE]
They have, you can coil nylon fishing line and monofilament silver sewing thread with a tiny motor, they coil up and the nylon one can be forced to contract through heat changes and the silver thread can be forced to contract with electrical impulses.
Like literally, you can make synthetic muscle out of fishing line, you can start making your own with a spool of cable, a wee motor to coil it up and a heat gun for the heat to activate em.
[url]http://www.nerdist.com/2014/02/twisted-fishing-line-the-cheap-and-easy-artificial-muscle/[/url]
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.