Modern robots can do a lot. But at the same time, they are far from human lightness and graceful movements. And the fault is imperfect artificial muscles. Scientists in many countries are trying to solve this problem. The article will be devoted to a brief review of their amazing inventions.
Polymer muscles from Singaporean scientists
A step towards more humanoid robots has recently been made by inventors from National University of Singapore. Today, heavyweights androids are driven by hydraulic systems. A significant minus of the latter is low speed. The artificial muscles for robots, presented by Singaporean scientists, allow cyborgs not only to lift objects that are 80 times heavier than their own weight, but also to do it as quickly as a person.
An innovative development, stretching five times in length, helps to “bypass” robots even ants, which, as you know, can carry objects 20 times heavier than the weight of their own body. Polymer muscles have the following advantages:
- flexibility
- amazing durability;
- elasticity;
- the ability to change its shape in a few seconds;
- the ability to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy.
However, scientists are not going to stop there - they plan to create artificial muscles that would allow the robot to lift the load, 500 times heavier than himself!
Discovery from Harvard - muscles from electrodes and elastomer
Inventors who work at Harvard University's School of Applied and Engineering Sciences have introduced brand-new artificial muscles for so-called soft robots. According to scientists, their offspring, consisting of a soft elastomer and electrodes, whose composition is carbon nanotubes, is not inferior in quality to the human musculature!
All existing robots today, as already mentioned, are based on drives, whose mechanism is hydraulics or pneumatics. Such systems operate due to compressed air or the reaction of chemicals. This does not allow you to design a robot as soft and fast as a person. Harvard scientists have eliminated this shortcoming by creating a brand new concept of artificial muscles for robots.
The new cyborg “muscle” is a multilayer structure in which the nanotube electrodes created in Clark’s laboratory control the upper and lower layers of flexible elastomers, the brainchild of scientists already from the University of California. Such muscles are ideal for both soft androids and laparoscopic instruments in surgery.
Harvard scientists did not stop at this wonderful invention. One of their latest developments is a biorobot-scat. Its components are rat heart muscle cells, gold and silicone.
The invention of the Bauchman group: another type of artificial muscle based on carbon nanotubes
Back in 1999, in the Australian town of Kirchberg, at the 13th meeting of the International Winter School on the Electronic Properties of Innovative Materials, a scientist Ray Bauchman, who works at Allied Signal and leads an international research group, made a presentation. His message was on the manufacture of artificial muscles.
Developers led by Ray Bauchman were able to present carbon nanotubes in the form of sheets of nanopaper. The tubes in this invention were in every way intertwined and confused with each other. The nanopaper itself resembled ordinary paper - it could be held in hands, cut into strips and pieces.
The experiment of the group was very simple in appearance - the scientists attached pieces of nanopaper to different sides of the adhesive tape and lowered this structure into a salt-conductive solution. After the low-voltage battery was turned on, both nanostrips were elongated, especially the one connected to the negative pole of the electric battery; then the paper curved. The artificial muscle model was functioning.
Baukhman himself believes that his invention, after a qualitative modernization, will significantly transform robotics, because such carbon muscles, when bent / unbent, create an electric potential - produce energy. Moreover, such muscles are three times stronger than human muscles, can function at extremely high and low temperatures, using low current and voltage for their work. It is quite possible to use it for prosthetics of human muscles.
University of Texas: Artificial Muscle from Fishing Line and Sewing Thread
One of the most striking is the work of a research team from the University of Texas, which is located in Dallas. She managed to get a model of artificial muscle, in its strength and power resembling a jet engine - 7.1 hp / kg! Such muscles are hundreds of times stronger and more productive than human ones. But the most surprising thing is that they were constructed from primitive materials - high-strength fishing line made of polymer and sewing thread.
The nutrition of such a muscle is a temperature difference. Provides his sewing thread, covered with a thin layer of metal. However, in the future, the muscles of robots may be fueled by temperature changes in their environment. By the way, this property can be used for weather-adaptive clothes and other similar devices.
If you twist the polymer in one direction, then it will sharply shrink when heated and quickly stretch when it is cooled, but if it goes the other way, it’s fundamentally the opposite. Such a simple design can, for example, rotate the overall rotor at a speed of 10 thousand revolutions / min. The advantage of such artificial muscles from fishing line is that they are able to contract up to 50% of their original length (human only 20%). In addition, they are distinguished by amazing endurance - this muscle does not "get tired" even after a millionth repetition of the action!
From Texas to Amur
The discovery of scientists from Dallas inspired many scientists from around the world. Successfully repeating their experience, however, only one robotic technician succeeded - Alexander Nikolayevich Semochkin, head of the information technology laboratory at the Belarusian State Pedagogical University.
At first, the inventor patiently waited for new articles in Science on the mass implementation of the invention of American colleagues. Since this did not happen, the Amur scientist decided with his like-minded people to repeat the wonderful experience and create artificial muscles from copper wire and fishing line with his own hands. But, alas, the copy was not viable.
Inspiration from Skolkovo
The case was forced to return to the almost abandoned experiments of Alexander Semochkin - the scientist came to a robotics conference in Skolkovo, where he met a like-minded person from Zelenograd, the head of the Neurobotics company. As it turned out, the engineers of this company are also busy creating muscles from the woods, which are quite viable for themselves.
Returning to his homeland, Alexander Nikolaevich with renewed vigor set to work. For a month and a half, he was able not only to assemble workable artificial muscles, but also to create a machine for twisting them, which made the turns of fishing line strictly repeatable.
Blagoveshchensk artificial muscle
To create a five-centimeter muscle, A. N. Semochkin needs several meters of wire and 20 cm of ordinary fishing line. The apparatus for the “production" of muscles, by the way, printed on a 3D printer, twists the muscle for 10 minutes. Then the structure is placed in a furnace for half an hour, heated to +180 degrees Celsius.
You can activate such a muscle with the help of electric current - just connect its source to the wire. As a result, it begins to heat up and transfer its heat to the fishing line. The latter stretches or contracts - depending on the type of muscle that the apparatus twisted.
Inventor plans
Alexander Semochkin’s new project is to “teach” the created muscles to quickly return to their original state. This can be helped by the quick cooling of the supply wire - the scientist suggests that such a process will occur faster under water. After a similar muscle is obtained, its first owner will be Iskanderus - the anthropomorphic robot of the Belarusian State Pedagogical University.
The scientist does not keep his invention a secret - he uploads videos to YouTube, and also plans to write an article with detailed instructions for creating a machine that twists muscles from a fishing line and wire.
Time does not stand still - the artificial muscles that we told you about are already used in surgery for endo- and laparoscopic operations. And in the Disney lab, with their participation, they put together a functioning arm.