Slashdot Mirror
Alcohol Powered Muscles
ianchaos writes "In an article on ScienCentral News, Scientists at the University of Texas are using alcohol to power artificial muscles. From the article: 'Usually the only alcohol-powered muscles are the ones in barroom brawls, but one scientist is adding alcohol to artificial muscles to power robots and more.'"
Or these researchers have been watching just a bit too much Cartoon network.
Does this mean I can finally have my very own Bender!?
Finally a fuel for Congressman other than self-righteous indignation.
And that, children, was when Slashdot's ratio of non-Bender-related comments to Bender-related comments began its inexorable slide toward zero.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
I could have told you that alcohol makes you stronger and more confident. Do they really need a scientist to figure that one out?
I had a few friends in college that had "Beer Muscles", (i.e. get a few in you, and you think you can take on the world)
How well can current grain production be scaled up? I mean, if this is gonna be useful, and ethanol cars or ethanol additives to gas, is there enough dormant grain production to take that up? I know that the US has subsidies, so there is dormant production, but is it enough?
I'll stick with Diet Pepsi instead of sucking down a Miller to power my muscles. My local gym has a strict no-alcohol policy.
Is this related to that great Canadian invention, the Molson Muscle?
Three Squirrels
"Beer, stat! There's too much blood in my alcohol supply!"
Everything in life is a trade off. You also get the hot one eyed purple haired chicks.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
...Chuck Norris' sweat must be like 198 proof.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
Wanted: A surgeon who will replace my muscles with the ones mentioned in TFA so I have a legitimate excuse to drink as much as I do.
This sig is false.
Did they get their inspiration from bar fights?
I Got your Alcohol Powered Muscle Right Here
Well, 2 out of 4 isn't bad...
Ah, the things college students will think of when they've had a bit too much to drink...
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
There's a blanket term for this, we're called Irish.
The slashdot submission is wrong; the muscles are being developed at the University of Texas at Dallas. "University of Texas" is our satellite campus in Austin. >:(
For many years I've thought of a mechanism for artificial muscles which didn't perfectly mimic either natural muscles, arthropods (hydraulics) or typical electrical motor joints.
It's based on the idea of muscles, that they exist in perpetual tension, so that to create motion via contraction you don't create more tension on one side of the bone, instead you simply relax the tension on one side and allow the existing tension on the other side to fully exert itself.
One way of achieving this would be to use thousands of taut wires each attached at one end to the 'bone' via a ligament like structure that would reinforce them... basically you could just braid them all together near the attachment point, and also attached to a motor that would wind or unwind them along it's circumference... thereby tightening or loosening the 'muscle'. This first muscle would be counterbalanced on the opposite side of the bone by a muscle with attachment points inverted, so that for an arm there would be a motor at the elbow and one at shoulder, each controlling one muscle in the arrangement. By rotating each motor only slightly for the degree of motion desired, you could pivot the arm at the shoulder with the strength and force of the movement only limited by the tensile strength of the materials used. By keeping the muscles under tension 'while at rest' there would be a very fast reaction time, similar to any spring based mechanical movement... think hard drive coil... ie: very fast quick twitch response... and at the same time the tension would also provide stiffness and immediate torque for heavy lifting type movements.
I'm sure other more sophisticated arrangements could be conceived, some using hydraulics or next gen materials like this memory wire... but the point is to use constant tension to produce very controlled, precise, quick, strong movements or long elastic fluid movements as desired... rather than no tension single point of torque/force which leads to poor control, etc.
my 0.2 on artificial muscles
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
While the whole alcohol bit makes for a great article, the technology is really in the wire. The only purpose for the alcohol here is in an exothermic reaction that causes the memory wire to heat up and contract. Don't we already have a million ways of doing that that don't prompt the requisite Futurama jokes?
I also fail to see the promise in this technology. It apparently has its advantages over fluid power (at least enough to warrant researching), but lacks reliability and efficiency? A quick venture to Wikipedia tells us "these materials are not currently appropriate for applications such as robotics or artificial muscles, due to energy inefficiency, slow response times, and large hysteresis." AFAICT there are still far too many questions keeping this tech from prime time.
For instance, how many contractions do you get before the material is exhausted? Is it like a rechargable battery where after a certain number of contractions you get ever diminishing returns from the wire?
What effect do the chemical reagents have on the physical properties of the wire? Is there a pair of exothermic reagents that will not corrode or degrade the wire over the long term?
What about the strength of the wire? Can you accurately fine-tune it to exert a controlled force over a given distance? What about releasing the tension in the wire? Would that require another force acting in an opposite direction, or do you just have to wait for the wire to cool off?
Sounds cool. Just not terribly promising.
I only mod funny =D
I do believe there's a Bender joke in there somewhere.
_______
2B1ASK1
However, for the sake of humor, science fiction, and the way I think the future should look, we must stop research now, while we're still using booze.
In other news, Luxco stock is up thirty points.
I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
Now, artificial intelligence powered by alcohol would be ... no wait, that already exists. Pretty much all alcohol-powered intelligence is artificial.
Some see the vessel as half full; others see it as half-empty; We pour it out on the floor and laugh
The robotic muscles displayed a grossly inflated sense of self esteem, hit on female researchers, and told dirty jokes before demanding burritos and finally passing out.
Sitting on the couch drinking gives you muscels! WOPPEEE! no exercise for me!
It's not -1 Flamebait! It's +5 Funny. You just didn't get the joke...
I do believe you haven't read the first 100 posts then.
We already have this technology, it's called Teamsters!
...how come ScuttleMonkey posted a story which didn't link to Roland Piquepaille's adblog.
That's just...wrong!
Judging by his diction, I suspect that "Slur" Stallone may have discovered this years ago.
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
Finns are not nicknamed alcohol sponges for nothing...
Here's some Simpsons:
"One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."
(Scene - Local pub, 20 years from now)
... so I said that's no cell phone, it's a lobster.
MagicDude:
Bluto: Arrgh, your jokes suck, and I'm taking your woman.
MagicBabe: Help me MagicDude. Heeeeeeeelllllp
(Cue Popeye Music)
(Reach inside shirt, pull out beer can. Squeeze contents into air and drink in one gulp).
MagicDude: Time to open up a Beowolf Cluster of Pain on your butt.
Some of my friends get kinda, um, how to say this delicately.......well they know that alcohol powers muscles..
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
After dowsing those muscles with alcohol, they do really stupid things and get tired really fast.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Bite it. Bite my shiny metal DONG. Quit modding these guys redundant.
This post was intended to waste a modpoint.
I have a alcohol powered brain.!!
...17oz lift....16oz lift......... 1oz lift..... 18oz lift.....
:)
This is a sophisticated weight training programme known
as stripping
H.
I know my strength always increases after a couple of healthy doses of alcohol. However, the day after my body thinks the opposite, I've got all these bruises and strained muscles. What am I doing wrong?
Well, im gonna build my own muscles...with blackjack and...hookers...in fact...forget the muscles.
"Whiskey is carried into committee rooms in demijohns and carried out in demagogues." - Mark Twain
"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." - Mark Twain
This is why Bonds will never outdo Ruth... wrong muscle enhancer.
Finally! Someone is doing some useful research.
Robots? Who needs alcohol fueled robots when you have alcohol fueled pledges?
This was discussed in an episode of the CBC radio program "Quirks and Quarks" a week or two ago.
Surely the next step now is to build something with artificial muscles and chlorophyll-containing leaves, so that it can produce its own energy by photosynthesis -- using nothing more than carbon dioxide and daylight?
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
When I submitted this story months ago, I had the decency to make a Bender joke!
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
If not, I don't think he'd be too happy about it. Doesn't want anyone thinking he's a robosexual.
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
Just imagine if Popeye had used beer instead of spinach. Brutus wouldn't have lived to keep pestering Olive oil
That's awful alx5000. Especially the making out part.
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
Oddly enough, this was first post, so I don't know why I was modded redundant.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
It ain nuddin but alkahol pwreing my mussles!!!111
Anything that progresses the development of robots and/or provides an opportunity for Futurama references is okay in my book.
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
Do they have to drink to stay sober? ;)
Keep your eyes to the sky.
If alchohol powered muscles are a reality, then I must be Arnold Schwartzeneggar
I dont NEED to drink!
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
DON'T PUSH IT! I'm alcohol powered right now. Take a look at my muscles! I can beat anyone while I'm drunk!
So this must mean that your robot is about to also become your best drinking buddy. Does it get better than that?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
This sounds like the myomer technology used to allow battlemechs to move around in the battletech universe. UT is also conducting railgun research, the Air Force is testing airborne anti-ballistic lasers, and we already have a new vehicular anti-missile system (Trophy ADS). All we need now is a fusion reactor to power a tank and we'll be one step closer to hearing "Reactor: Online, Sensors: Online, Weapons: Online, All Systems Nominal."
"Your plastic pal who's fun to be with!"
drink Vodka. and are in 9th grade.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD