Slashdot Mirror
Bionic Arm With Muscle Emulation
Gugo writes "German based company FESTO has develop a bionic arm that uses muscle emulation,(video included) with a product called 'fluidic muscle.' It works like a normal animal-human muscle but moved by air inside.
This new type of prosthetic offers rapid response, small size, simple assembly and ease of control.
On their website they show the range of fluidic muscles with a car race simulator."
for giving one's self "the stranger"
We have the technology.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
I would only buy one if it could break people's arms while arm wrestling
Wow... even a woman should be able to use it!
but I just want bionic eyes. The thought of one of those damned screen readers trying to read forum posts is one of my worst fears, especially since everybody wants to use an acronym for things that have no right being acronyms. IANAL, but IIRC thats fucking annoying.
That music playing on the film sounds something close to a really cheesy porno. The odd thing about the film, is the fact that the one arm that was writing, seemed to be going back and forth writing. The O was complete before the l's were in HELLO.
Just me
No. And don't try using it any other way... ouch!
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Two fully functioning arms sitting next to each other in the video..... and no high fives?! What a waste of technology!
Will these devices in the market in time to play with a copy of Duke Nukem Forever?
--
The easiest way to earn money with your web.
...robotic handjob.
Arm is not an emulator!!!!
I seem to recall years ago a story about Disney using similar sounding technology to create more life like animatronics for rides like "It's a small world". Anyone have any reference to descriptions of that origional technology for a comparison? I can't find it now.
Never mind Steve Austin. We can make him better... stronger... stretchier!
(Now where was I? Oh yeah--the important thing was that I had a Stretch Armstrong action figure, which was the style at the time. They didn't have fluidic muscles because of the gas crisis. The only thing you could get was those cornsyrup-in-latex ones...)
when the technology progresses enough to build left arms as well. Current ETA is 2014.
In the video, the arm still looks clumsy. Its movements are similar to the ones in the movie Short Circuit. Sure, this looks a little more realistic (or it would if there was some sort of skin simulation), but without sophisticated software to enable more lifelike movements, I don't see how this is any better than what we already had.
This sort of research is some of the most useful and cool that's out there. Bettering ourselves with technology makes perfect sense to me, and that includes our injured selves. As this tech progresses and matures and becomes more cost-effective, I look forward to seeing it replace the usual rigid prosthetic limbs that so many people sport nowadays. The more realistic, useful, and durable the better, and this festo research is definitely privileging those factors.
I like basketball!!1!
Will they attach a few electrodes to someone's head and try to control that thing using bio feed back? Why not the CEO's head? I am not only Bionic Arm Club President, but also a user?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
It does not look like its percision is very good, or at least no where near what a pneumatic approach can give you. I mean in the video it bearly could write huge letters. Obviously design evolution could help in this, but unlike a biological system, it will not get better percision with more use. Personally, I think that Pneumatic systems are the best for arms because their speed, accuracy, repeatablility, and sheer power are just amazing. I will admit that they are not without their problems as well, though...
Did anyone notice that in the video, the robotic arm seems to be writing "Help" on the screen, pleading for someone to assist it? It looked so sad...
Just as long as you don't plug it into 220volts while in Germany.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
this sort of ligament-based actuation has not developed more? The principle of having a small deflecting force among the muscle fibers producing a large sum force at the joint seems very elegant. Are the alternatives (pneumatic, hydraulic, servo) that much better? Maybe this design will turn out to be far more energy efficient than those.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Emulation is slow, just do an arm API implementation.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Festo does good work. They're an industrial automation company, and they do demos like this for promotional purposes. Check out their videos on YouTube.
The innovation here is not "fluidic muscles". It's their piezoelectric proportional valves. It's been possible for years to do precision control of pneumatics. Twenty years ago, "Pneumatic Valves, Inc." in Palo Alto was doing control like that. But older proportional valves were big and expensive, with a voice coil actuator on the end of a spool valve. Festo has miniaturized the technology with their piezoelectric valves.
Pneumatic systems have traditionally been either force actuators or devices driven to a limit stop. Fine position control was the domain of hydraulics. This is changing. For pneumatic systems, if the valves can be brought close to the actuator, the valves are fast, position sensors are used, and the control system is well designed, the system becomes quite controllable. That's what Festo is demonstrating here.
You can also do some things with pneumatics you can't do well with electrical drive, such as create springs with variable spring constants. Muscles can be usefully modeled as spring-damper systems, where the spring constant, zero point, and damping constant are all controllable. This can be emulated with electrical actuators, but emulating a spring in software requires high-powered actuators and loses energy. Legged running work needs something like a variable spring, and pneumatics are currently the closest thing to muscles available.
Can I get one with rocket power?
ah they have this figured out but did they figure out how to fix the problem with balance? when robots' arms move one way their body goes the opposite, they jerk every time they move [the movement causes this] we humans balance ourselves so that any movement is counterbalanced by another so we don't "jerk"3 7348397814&q=japan+fembot&total=3&start=0&num=10&s o=0&type=search&plindex=0
fast movements cause the jerk not the jeriness of the motion its self:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-21051975
It looks promising, but for a real prosthetic, wouldn't you have to drag an air compressor around with you?
I...I'm attacking the darkness!
being able to use the technology will cost you an arm and a leg.
It sounds like the new Slashdot meme!
"A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it." - Churchill
Now they'll be able to open pickle jars.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
/. kills the FESTO website.
"The connection was reset while trying to load the page."
Guess everyone still wants a shiny new bionic right arm.
Hope is the currency of fools
Linux on a nano-ITX board.... B-)
for a second there I thought it said FISTO not FESTO.
Shop as usual. Avoid panic buying.
one of the coolest things I've seen.
:(
It's handwriting is better than mine
Hope is the currency of fools
to lift their melted slasdotted server off the ground.
Good, then someone can open the buggers for me.
Sometimes, no matter how much you try to turn that lid, it aint going to open.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Noooooooooooo!
If I went around claiming I was an emperor...they'd put me away!
Just need more power tools, or a belt wrench.
but will the hand have kung-fu grip?
if so, I for one welcome our new GI Joe replicant overlords.
oh marmalade.
I "jerk" at least twice a day, you insensitive clod!!
easy actually. either make a hole in the lid or use the knife as a lever under the lid, apply little force until pressure equalises.
when you're lucky a bottle opener will do even better.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
What about aerogels doped with metals that contract electromagnetically?
One valuable feature of muscles is their power:weight ratio. Aerogels are extremely light - now something like only 20% lighter than air. And they have lots of other valuable engineering properties, including high strength (up to their critical collapse point). And they're cheap to manufacture (in their current form).
Why go with mere "air muscles", when aerogels could offer a much more highly structured, functional material?
--
make install -not war
while searching for another version of the slashdotted article, i found this http://www.designnews.com/blog/320000232/post/2900 08429.html/. its dated april 2006 and appears to be about the same product, running the same demo. dunno if its just an incorrect timestamp, or if this is just really old news.
Perhaps they will replace the arm breakers with this model of killer arms! Instead of a fracture; these babies will deliver total arm tearoffage!
Maybe he's designed this arm for his friend:
http://wongablog.co.uk/wb-images/cousinit.jpg
Is this a dupe of that article about those people who got their arms broken by a Japanese arcade machine? ;^)
--
Toro
Or just shoot a hole in it. My cousin has been doing that ever since I married her.
You may have just made the funniest /. post of all time.
This new type of prosthetic offers rapid response, small size, simple assembly and ease of control.
Sweet! I can go pick one up at IKEA!
Wasn't R2D2's arm tool good enuff? it did everything! and you can be a total hax0r with it! open security doors and whatever! Stop making an arm. Make a Swiss ARMy knife!
Balderdash!
They were building a very ambitious Biped Walker out of wood a while back but it seems to have been scrapped now.
Worst BBC News Stories
Worst BBC News Stories
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Warning, if you are at work, please do NOT follow this link, but if you are at a safe place where you can see a bit of porn, this is a link to a lifelike silicone doll: www.realdoll.com .
Not that I am trying to post porn on Slashdot, but a link to what kind of technology is available to make a lifelike human form suitable for prostheses.
I can imagine the silicone covering fluidic muscles which would look very lifelike, even warm to the touch, and feel just like real muscles. The fluid bladder comprising the muscle belly could be made in any shape so that the aesthetics of how the muscle appears as it is flexed could be tailored to match the natural muscle.
One could have the appearance of a bodybuilder, or a fashion model, or whatever.
I can not see a fluidic muscle being very strong, but in the absence of natural muscle, anything is more useful than nothing. It will get your hand up to your mouth to feed yourself, comb your hair, or do your buttons, although I doubt it would be useful for heavier work.
The bicep-tricep pair would operate as opposing muscle/fluid reservoir so that in order to bend the arm, fluid is pumped from one bladder to the other. The forearm could be full of small opposing bladders to control the fingers, all run from a small microcontroller and power source. From the outside, it would appear just as muscle appears, even bulging when flexed just like real muscle.
It sounds like a great fun thing to work on, knowing that I would be creating something someone actually needs.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
after this press realease, it got me thinking if that video was real time. it looked like it was being fast-foward.
I propose a new strategy, Chewbacca; Let the droid win!
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
With a name like Festo, it _has_ to be good.
A little redundant, unless you're a creationist.
I used this to give myself a Dutch rudder, it was pretty good.
Some years back, Festo started wandering round our website every week. Then they came out with their muscles - which, of course, they had to give a different name... Now, they've produced something we did, ooh, 6 years ago? Still, the marketing is pretty slick. Anyway, we've got hands to build...
We build robots - www.shadowrobot.com
We have been using one of these "muscle" actuators as a clutch actuator in our racing car for about half a year now. So the muscle itself is not a new product. So far we did not have any problems with it or any other component of the car's pneumatic system which were provided entirely by them. And I also have seen that hand demo months ago. However, I must admit that I am surprised at the precision with which these muscles are controlled in the demos. You cannot do that with a set of standard valves. We are using one intake and three outlet valves for different clutch release speeds and that's barely tuneable enough to get the job done for us (it's an on/off kind of thing with not quite reproducable timing).
http://www.moonlight3d.eu/
It works like a normal animal-human muscle but moved by air inside.
actually if it uses "fluidic muscle", the arm works more as a spider leg than a human arm...
but it is cool anyway!
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
Did anyone else see the video and think the robot was writing "Help!" on the board? Freaked me out for a moment.
I've had the theme tune to Quantum Leap going through my head all day... Now you have, too!
They'll have a robotic replacement for one of those soon enough as well...
oooo bring on the puns :)
Who thinks of Erasmus when watching the video?