By Julie Beck Posted 03.17.2011 at 3:15 pm 8 Comments

Jelly Motor New Scientist

Replacing some of the nuts and bolts in robots’ bodies with stretchy artificial muscles would allow them to be more flexible and lifelike than ever. Researchers at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute in New Zealand have succeeded in using such soft muscles in a motor that creates continuous rotational force. The motor uses only a few parts beside the muscle and needs no gears, cogs or bearings.

These jelly-like muscles are so elastic thanks to an insulating polymer film that can stretch to more than 300 percent of its original size. On either side of the film is a layer of conducting carbon grease. Upon application of a voltage, one layer accumulates a positive charge and the other a negative charge, attracting the layers to each other and squishing the polymer insulator in between them. The polymer layer contracts and expands as voltages are applied and removed.


It takes six of these muscles, arranged like the spokes of a bicycle wheel, to turn the shaft of the motor in continuous rotary motion. The muscles are attached to a central foam ring around the shaft. This foam ring is designed to replace the ratcheting mechanism used in previous devices that used electroactive polymers (EAPs) to create rotation. The new motor doesn’t require any rigid pieces, greatly expanding the possibilities for artificial muscle use. For example, instruments using EAP muscles could perform less invasive surgeries, as they could squeeze through small incisions.

[New Scientist]

8 Comments

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-my name here-
03/17/11 at 3:05 pm

it looked like there was tear in one of them.

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ghost
03/18/11 at 2:48 am

waugh uncanny valley! i'd like to see this in actual robotic use, like if we built a skeleton would we be able to use the rigor of these to keep it upright? like one would expect from an actual person? or would it just collapse under it's own weight? either way this is kinda cool.

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Slunk
03/18/11 at 9:01 am

this is cool

@ ghost:
yeah that would be cool but it does look a lil fragile, further improvements need to be made to strengthen it. im sure that if you took a light weight human skeleton
and anatomically attached all the human muscles it could work... but then you need to think about the amount of processin power that would be required to move all the muscles... when one muscle is streched, another or more muscles help to compress in the opposit direction, and in order for the movement to stop again one or more muscles assist in the process. thats why our movemtnst are soo smooth(i mean im no doctor or anything but i think thats how we work lol) just for us to stay balanced while standing, it takes almost all muscles to collaborate, and if one of those muscles is sent a command to move, all the other muscles must adjust with a specific tension and force... no simple process. it would take years of trial and error to make a robot as smooth and anatomically correct as us. but one can only dream.

"sometimes it takes a thousand notes to make one sound" -Buckethead

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ExistentialThreat
03/18/11 at 9:46 am

How long until someone puts this in a fleshlight....

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Slunk
03/18/11 at 11:59 am

LOL!!!^^

"sometimes it takes a thousand notes to make one sound" -Buckethead

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B.V.
03/18/11 at 4:30 pm

@ExistentialThreat,

I had the same thought, but about "real dolls"

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IceMetalPunk
03/21/11 at 3:18 pm

@Slunk: I have to tell you, the processing is not a problem. We already have robots that can process everything they need to stay balanced, even when walking, running, pushed, or kicked. Have you seen Big Dog (or its newest bipedal cousin)? Trust me when I say, we don't need to worry about that.

I like the way things are going. Robotic muscles will soon be closer to biological muscles. With the right software developments in neural networking, robotic brains will work closer to natural brains... we're on our way to creating artificial life in the most literal sense possible. And I like it :).

-IMP ;) :)

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Slunk
03/25/11 at 9:15 am

@Icemetalpunk
yeah i know man very tru but keep in mind that its on 4 legs. i can make a robot at home that stands on 4 legs lol!!!
but to make a robot on 2 legs with the amount of speed, agility, and durability as us it would take some time, and i believe that the robots u were talking about dont use anatomicaly correct artificial muscle fibres but prob metal and hydrolic or something along those lines (just guessing so might be wrong). in anycase an interesting thing to think about, if a.i. gets smart enough to know it exists can u consider it life? i mean we think were alive because our brain proceses electrical and chemical signals.

"sometimes it takes a thousand notes to make one sound" -Buckethead



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