In the experiment, it can fold itself. According to this new research, the heat-activated origami clothes designed for robots can help robots walk, roll, sail and slide.
"Imagine the application of space exploration in the future. You can send a robot with a bunch of exoskeletons to Mars," Li Shuguang, the co-author of the study and the computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory of MIT, said in a statement. "Robots can wear different clothes to accomplish different tasks." KDSP and KDSP are different from the deformable robots in Transformers movies. In real life, the existing robots are usually not suitable. Researchers say that each part of the robot usually has a fixed structure and a single and clear purpose, which makes it difficult for the robot to perform various actions.
On the contrary, animals can often change shape to adapt to the environment. For example, a caterpillar becomes 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, this is not Daniela La Luz, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a senior author of the study, said in a statement: "Every task has a different task, which is very effective." Through this method inspired by deformation, we can expand the robot's ability to use in different situations by giving it different accessories.
The origami set can be folded automatically and activated by heating. (Miyashita et al., Scientific Citation Index. Robots. 2. eaao4369(20 17)) Researchers used a small magnetic cube named "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 the hot plate. Turn on the hot plate, and the thermally activated sheet can be folded 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 carry almost twice the weight. Research shows that "gliding robot" can soar in the air.
Primer can even wear many kinds of clothes at the same time, just like Russian dolls. It can add an exoskeleton to become a "walking robot", and then interface with another larger garment, so that it can carry objects and move two lengths per second. The researchers said that after Primer completed a task, it could enter the water to dissolve any exoskeleton worn by the equipment in less than 1 minute.
He said that now scientists have proved that Primer can wear all kinds of exoskeletons, and future research may show that similar clothing can also be developed for mobile robots. The main author of this study is Shuheimia Hita, director of the Micro-robot Research Group of York University in the UK. He said that potential applications may include eating robots, which can use several exoskeletons to perform tasks in the body, such as removing objects and repairing wounds.
Future research will also focus on creating more functional exoskeletons. Miyazaki Hayao told Life Science magazine that it is necessary to complete tasks such as "digging a hole in the sand to driving in the water". He said that scientists also hope to "make these robots smaller." 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 in detail in the September 27th issue of Science Robot.
This is an original article about life science.