Flexible robot terrible walk through fire and ice

A few years ago, we wrote about this little spongy air Android tabs Harvard University, no moving or electronic parts that can beat down with a hammer and will always try to kill you and keep walking. Version of the robot was attached in 2011 for air compressors on the outside, but the last one that combines all the strength and control of the aircraft, which can not be killed by fire.



The basic design of this robot, developed in the laboratory of Professor George Whitesides .. M "at Harvard University, described in an article in the Journal of soft robots, most similar to a few years ago, despite being untethered is a very big deal because it is a requirement for the robot to be able to do something useful outside the laboratory.

Silicone rubber that the robot is very difficult, so they can continue to operate at temperatures below freezing (test to -9 degrees Celsius) 0.40 km / h wind, puddles up 5 cm of water, and the fire of 3000 Kelvin methane up to 50 seconds. It is also resistant to acid, no matter what it's worth.

Image: Soft robots / Whitesides Research Group / Harvard
This version is completely independent, where it will be quite pleased with himself for about two hours before his execution on the battery. It does not include an active sensor or a lot of the brain, but you can turn it into a platform for monitoring by (literally) on the accession GOPRO with a range of electrical tape.

Android can take one of several different looks to move in a straight line or off, and out of the apartment, and they zip at speeds of up to 18 meters per hour (0.5 cm per second ). Internal pressure to 20 psi, the robot is very strong and has no problem lifting loads of up to 3.4 kg, or focus on a fixed term contract of 8 kg.

Image: Soft robots / Whitesides Research Group / Harvard
They do not, at this stage, involving a backpack full of mini air compressors, battery, and valves, controller, and all these things are certainly not soft, for destruction to make it autonomous. Therefore, the robot can survive fire, ice and water, and is run by a car, as long as these things only happen to one of the members, no electronics, which she wears around her back. The total cost for all the stuff out just $ 1,111.

We had speculated before (referring to robots for printing), there may be ways to eliminate many, if not most of this stuff is hard and brittle to more flexible robots.

A weakness of the design presented here is the sensitivity of the solid components exposed in the center of the robot (compressors, valves, controller and batteries) for conditions that defy rigid robots usually (and the effects of acute stress and harsh environmental conditions applied). It may be possible to address this weakness through the distribution of rigid components in the robot body and condition the form of a soft material. , More technically difficult option is to replace the latest components with their counterparts rigid soft. This approach, however, requires significant advances in the development of electronic soft, batteries and pumps. One possibility is the use of a flexible carrier components as much as possible the negative (e.g., negative addressing valves).

Maybe can be replaced by artificial muscles chemical gas generators electric pumps, or perhaps can pump the hydraulic fluid between the parties and the body. But that's part of what we love about the reporting of search robots: it was possible to see the path that is followed to freakier than ever, and more advanced systems, versatile, flexible, and in the coming years and we are really seeing robots that are not destroyed.

VIA Paper , New Scientist