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MIT Unveils Robotic Manipulator Filled With Coffee Grounds
An anonymous reader writes "MIT researchers have developed a highly articulated robotic manipulator based on soft materials that can harden to reposition the device. The technique is known as jamming, and it relies on pouches filled with granular material like coffee grounds; when air is removed from the pouches, they become rigid. The researchers combined jamming actuators with cables to build a manipulator resembling an elephant trunk. They say the device is low-cost, capable of grasping a variety of objects, and can remain in a hardened state for extended periods of time using little energy."
they just built the most awesome dildo ever
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
They say the device is low-cost, capable of grasping a variety of objects, and can remain in a hardened state for extended periods of time using little energy
"...can remain in a hardened state for extended periods of time using little energy."
Didn't Pfizer patent this?
Japanese men rejoice. Tentacle porn is no longer limited to a drawn form.
That idea has been around for a while. Several snake and trunk like cable driven robots have been built. Some are a tube around discs, with three cables arranged to pull on each disc. Each disc is then a controllable joint. Combining this with pressure, vacuum, and a jamming medium is interesting, but it's not yet clear how useful.
And no, it's not cheap. You still have a servomotor on every cable, plus valves and an air compressor. Coffee grounds are probably a temporary choice. Something like glass or plastic beads, which won't absorb water, may last longer.
Lame First aside, actually it is.
If you have ever seen a vacuum-packed brick of coffee you know what this is all about. It's ROCK-HARD until you break the seal, then it all falls to dust as the air gets in the package.
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
"They say the device is low-cost, capable of grasping a variety of objects, and can remain in a hardened state for extended periods of time using little energy."
In The Industry, they're called "fluffers".
Unban Ethanol-fueled
Long live Vac-Tentacle!
Stretch Armstrong has a new nemesis!
Wiki Citation
The whole summary is just a perfect setup.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Here at MIT in one of the world's finest robotics labs we've secretly replaced the coffee grounds in these articulated manipulators with rich, sparkling Folgers crystals to see if scientists can tell the difference.
Following the second link of TFA, I saw the picture of the robot and it was somehow familiar... What could possibly go wrong?
I for one would like to welcome our new caffeine powered overlords.
my caps lock was on, and you're thinking the same thing Everyone else was. Pervert.
Wonderful! An articulated manipulator that'll keep scientists up all night.
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I want the next bear I shoot (just kidding) stuffed with coffee beans so I can pose it, pump out the air, and use it as a couch or coffee table.
This could be an extremely protective packing material if you pump out the air to harden it after letting it conform to the shape of the object in the package.
Sandbag walls might be much stronger if the air were sucked out of the bags after they're stacked to make them lock into place against each other.
As much as I would love this for my house, I've spent too many hours perfecting my coffee brewing almost down to a science. It would be a waste of the robot's time and mine to do a job I already do great and to have the poor thing gathering dust in a corner.
They cut a hole in the wall, had a baby elephant stick its trunk through, and call it a robot made out of coffee. Is this a repeat from April 1?
If you used materials that convert to a solid when a current is run thru them i think it would work better.
I know that exists for fluids, so the trick would be for something less solid in its normal state. ( think true synthetic mussels ).
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If the device remains rigid after four hours, call a mechanic to avoid the possibility of permanent damage.
The second video clip was totally of a boner deflating...totally.
Using non-used coffee grounds is waste, used coffee grounds smell terrible.
That's why I predict that this invention will fail. "Golden age" of robotic manipulators is over.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Contact your doctor if your manipulator stays jammed for more than 4 hours. This can be a serious condition.
... welcome our new caffeine-based overlords.
It sounds good, but the coffee grounds aren't the new part. That's a couple of years old. The new part is mixing it with cables, which is probably a bit trickier than it sounds like.
FWIW, I suspect that coffee grounds aren't a particularly good choice, outside of being cheap, and gleaning lots of PR. But when they're dry enough they aren't all that heavy. And they don't like to pack tightly, which is fairly important. But I think something sturdier would be better. Say hollow aluminum marbles. (They'd need to be sturdy enough not do dent in use, though. But coffee grounds turn into dust, which is also a bad thing.)
Still, for demonstration projects, coffee grounds is possibly the best choice. Sand is too heavy. Flour tends to pack. etc.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Actually, I have also seen whole coffee beans packaged this way, too - the same effect applies, the little bricks of coffee beans are also rock-hard. Apparently the granular size of the filler isn't too important to the process - it just has to be un-compressible enough so that when it's all packed down together it doesn't alter or lose its shape.
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
I saw this presentation at ICRA. Believe it or not, they actually tested several materials (coffee, sand, glass spheres, diatomic (?) earth) and the coffee performed best in their tests. I'm sure there are better materials, but don't assume they didn't think of it.
for emergency/medical situations when needing a fast splint to immobilize patients or their limbs.
There's a bag with beads inside and a valve.
The bag is formed around the limb, and air pumped out.
I was amazed to see this at work during an exercise.