Life-like robots closer to reality - Learn, adapt...
Life-like robots closer to reality
By Press Association Wednesday, August 21, 2019 - 07:48 PM
Researchers
at the University of Bristol have demonstrated a new way of embedding
computation into soft robotic materials.
This
advance could create new robotic possibilities to environmental monitoring,
pollution clean-up, drug delivery, prosthetic devices, wearable biosensing and
self-healing composites.
Professor
of Robotics Jonathan Rossiter said: “We have taken an important step toward
entirely soft, autonomous robots and for smart materials to move beyond
stimulus-response relationships which could enable the intelligent behaviours
seen in living organisms.
“Soft
robots could become even more life-like; capable of independently adapting to
their environment and can demonstrate the diversity of behaviours seen in the
natural world.”
The
concept of Soft Matter Computers (SMCs) takes inspiration from biology, and is
set out in the Science Robotics journal.
It
aims to mimic the workings of the vascular system, where hormones such as
adrenaline are released into the bloodstream and disperse throughout the body.
Responses
in particular parts of the body are triggered when the hormones are detected by
a receptor.
The
researchers from Bristol’s Faculty of Engineering demonstrated a new mechanism
that enabled computation to be embedded into three soft robots.
In
the study, they describe how a conductive fluid receptor (CFR) is a viable and
fundamental building block for a range of SMCs and next-generation robots.
According
to the scientists, the soft matter computers could mirror this process by
translating information within the structure of a fluidic tape that travels
through the soft body of the robot, and then is detected by an appropriate
receptor and then generates an output.
- Press Association
Comments
Post a Comment