Just like people working underwater in wet clothes or working in space in spacesuits, researchers are designing exoskeletons for robots, so that the machines can wear various clothes suitable for different tasks.
In the experiment, it can fold itself. According to this new research, the heat-activated origami suit designed for robots can help robots walk, roll, sail and glide.
"Imagine the application of space exploration in the future, where you can send a robot with a bunch of exoskeletons to Mars," study co-author Li Shuguang, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "Robots can wear different clothes to accomplish different tasks." [Super intelligent machine: 7 robot futures] "KDSP" and "KDSP" are different from the shape-moving robots in the "Transformers" movies. In real life, the existing robots are usually not suitable. Researchers say that each part of a robot usually has a fixed structure and a single, clear purpose, which makes it difficult for the robot to perform various actions.
on the contrary, animals can often change their shapes to adapt to the environment. For example, a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, and a hermit crab can change its shell.
inspired by nature, scientists have developed a robot, which can transform itself with different equipment and enable it to perform different tasks.
If we want robots to help us do things, it's not that Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and senior author of the research, said in a statement: "Every task has a different task, which is very effective." With this deformation-inspired method, we can expand the use ability of a robot in different situations by giving it different accessories. The origami suit can be folded automatically and activated by heat. (Miyashita et al., Sci. Robots. 2, eaao4369(217))
The researchers used a small magnetic cube called "Primer". They put the cube in an arena, where they can use a magnetic field to make Primer move like a robot.
In the experiment, scientists asked Primer to move to various plastic origami boards installed on a hot plate. Opening the hot plate can make the thermally activated sheet fold into various shapes around the cube in about 3 minutes.
each exoskeleton primer has its own advantages. For example, the wheels of a "wheeled robot" can help it move at twice the speed of a "walking robot", and a "boat robot" can float on the water and can carry almost twice the weight. Research shows that the "gliding robot" can soar in the air, and
the primer can even wear a variety of clothes at the same time, just like Russian nesting dolls. It can add an exoskeleton to become a "walking robot" and then interface with another larger suit, allowing it to carry objects and move two body lengths per second. Researchers say that after Primer completes a task, it can enter the water to dissolve any exoskeleton worn by the equipment in less than one minute.
Now that scientists have proved that Primer can wear a variety of exoskeletons, future research may show that similar suits can also be developed for mobile robots, he said, the main author of this study, Shuheimia Hita, director of the micro-robot research group of York University in the UK. Potential applications may include eating robots, which can use several exoskeletons to perform some tasks in the body, such as removing objects and repairing wounds. He said,
Future research will also focus on creating more functional exoskeletons, and Miyazaki Hayao told Life Science magazine to complete tasks such as "digging holes in sand to driving in water". Scientists also hope to "make these robots smaller," he said. Minerals are intelligent and may use different types of biomaterials, so that they can operate in the body for a long time.
Miyazaki Hayao and his colleagues described their findings online in the September 27th issue of Science Robot.
is an original article about life science.