What Are “Soft Robots?” Smooth & Agile Like You

Carmel Majidi from Carnegie Mellon University recently gave a presentation on the meaning of “soft robots.”

We are moving from an age of industrial robots to “cooperative robots” (Co-Robots). According to Majidi, it used to be that the vast majority of robots were used in manufacturing settings. Now robots are moving out of factories and into hospitals, schools and homes.

For this to be successful, robots must shed their “tough guy” image, become “softer” and easily cooperate with humans.

An End To Hulking, Menacing Robots

In the industrial marketplace humans are working side-by-side with robots more than ever before to increase productivity and reduce costs. In hospitals, for example, robots are now being used to lift patients out of beds and move them to another bed or stretcher; a job that used to be done primarily by nurses who often ended up with back injuries.

And now, humans of all shapes, sizes and conditions, including soldiers, athletes and the disabled are using wearable robots to help improve mobility, strength and endurance.

The Age Of Soft Robots: Getting Hardware Systems “On Board”

And while robots are moving out of manufacturing settings they are beginning to lose their “roughness.” The image of robots in real life and in Hollywood is of dangerous, intimidating automatons capable of terrible devastation and destruction.

Robots, to date, have been made of rigid materials, including metals, hard plastics and semi conductors. New robots for new markets mentioned above are “softer” with external surfaces that are more like skin than their hard shell predecessors.

Integrated into new robots are human-like musculature, elegant skeleton like frames with smooth services and gentle curves and even “organs” inside driving operation. The purpose of  a “soft robot” is to allow easy interaction with human users allowing them a full range of motion that provides comfort and doesn’t inhibit a human’s natural motion.

Some “soft robots” will need to be implanted inside the human body, where they will need to do their job without interfering with natural bodily functions and keep from damaging internal structures and organs, according to Majidi.

Soft Robots (Image Courtesy www.darpa.mil)

New Materials Revolution In Robotics

The drive to bring computer hardware systems “on board” is creating the need for artificial skins, nervous tissues, conductive fluids, soft elastic circuits, undulatory gait, artificial muscles, etc.

With these new characteristics “soft robots” will soon be much easier for people to relate to and use with confidence.

New Modeling & Design Tools

Majidi explains the need for new tools and methods to design “soft robots” that bring together the experience and knowledge of engineers, chemists, biologists, designers and artists, all with knowledge developed over decades and centuries. At the same time, recent advancements in control systems and materials help robot developers re-examine how robots are constructed and operate.

The following video shows “soft robots” under development at MIT.

Tags: soft robots

This entry was posted on September 12th, 2014 and is filed under Automation. Both comments and pings are currently closed.