Posted on 12/24/2013 9:34:40 PM PST by BenLurkin
“We’ve created a micro-bimorph dual coil that functions as a powerful torsional muscle, driven thermally or electro-thermally by the phase transition of vanadium dioxide,” said Junqiao Wu, the project’s lead scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (Berkeley Labs).
...
Dr. Koh suggests how these micro-muscles will change the game of humanoid robotics. “Our materials mimic those of the human muscle, responding quickly to electrical impulses, instead of slowly for mechanisms driven by hydraulics. Robots move in a jerky manner because of this mechanism. Now, imagine artificial muscles which are pliable, extendable and react in a fraction of a second like those of a human. Robots equipped with such muscles will be able to function in a more human-like manner – and outperform humans in strength.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
This sounds promising.
Hydraulics actually works pretty well. You can transfer enormous power with hydraulics...it’s amazing IMO.
The hydraulic technology can be improved beyond what it is today.
As long as they can be stopped by the .45ACP, we’re good.
Robotics are the wave of the future.
“Bay 12, please”
So.. Caliban in a couple decades?
No kidding, it's especially interesting that hydraulics can be used to make a infinitely-variable transmission.
If I heard that on Star Trek, I would think the writers were overdoing the pseudo-science talk.
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
“Will I dream?” -HAL9000.
Only mobile.
And before anyone nerds out and complains, yes I know HAL was the creation of a different author!
Wow, talk about an over-hyped title. The article is a description of a rather modest piece of research, certainly nothing like the article title would lead you to believe.
I sense a big upgrade coming in Japanese robot dolls
Maybe a bigger drop in marriages and long term relationships as well? Couldn’t resist that.
15 an hour to flip burgers? Not for long.
I have no idea what that is but I want one that I can attach to my weed whacker.
They’ve developed muscles for robots, not brains. Call me back when they can build the equivalent of Asimov’s positronic brain
Agreed. By simply increasing the operating pressure, and using fast-acting valve technology, hydraulics can easily duplicate or exceed human-scale muscle activity.
It's what I used for my first android, except the hydraulic "cylinders" were replaced by more smoothly-operating bladders. That's the way our muscles work, after all. Look at your bicep, and just imagine using a bladder to replace it, that swelled up in diameter as its length contracted.
A cool project would be to make an anatomical skeleton with hydraulic bladder muscles as described. The easy way to activate it would be to duplicate your own actions; a bit of "me and my shadow" dance routines to follow.
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