S. Morin, Harvard
Last year, we covered a radically different approach to robotics. Instead of the hard, mechanical skeletons that are features of most robots, a team was inspired by squid, and built a soft, flexible robot that ran on air. By pumping different segments of their robot full of air using a set of pre-programmed commands, the rubbery creation could flex its legs and stride across surfaces, slipping neatly under barriers when needed.
But if the researchers were inspired by cephalopods like the octopus and cuttlefish, then they seemed to also have been a bit jealous of one of these creatures' other abilities: rapidly changing color to match their surroundings or make a warning display. So the team is back with a modified version of their previous robot—one that can change color on demand.
The method for doing this was a straightforward variation on the technique used to propel the robot: an external compressor was used to pump material into the robot from an external reservoir. Instead of air, however, the material was a fluid that contained a variety of dyes or fluorescent molecules that gave the robot some color.
Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments
DIGITAL JUICE
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank's!