A DARPA-funded research project at Massachusetts-based iRobot has developed a series of prototype robots with inflatable parts. The robots, developed with researchers from Carnegie-Mellon University and inflatable engineering company ILC Dover, are part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's program to create more mobile, more capable, and less expensive robots for the battlefield.
In an interview with Ars, Chris Jones, director for research advancement at iRobot, said that the Advanced Inflatable Robotics (AIR) research prototypes—which include a modified PackBot with an inflatable manipulator arm and a fully inflatable "hexabot" that walks on six legs—were developed as part of one of several research initiatives at the company funded by DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) Program, an effort launched in March of 2011. The program has resulted in a number of other recent robotics advances, including flexible robots that can change color and the Boston Dynamics land speed record-holding Cheetah bot.
The military has been using small robots from iRobot, such as the PackBot, for years, purchasing hundreds of the bots for dealing with improvised explosive devices and checking out potentially dangerous areas. The M3 program is a broad research initiative to develop technologies that will make small robots even more capable. Inflatable robotic systems are of particular interest because of their decreased weight and because of how cheaply they can be manufactured.
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