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MIT Unveils Robotic Manipulator Filled With Coffee Grounds

Posted by timothy on from the your-creepy-robot-smells-delicious dept.

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."

17 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. women rejoice by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    they just built the most awesome dildo ever

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    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:women rejoice by BobNET · · Score: 5, Funny

      I can remain in a hardened state for extended periods of time using little energy!

      So can anyone, it's called rigor mortis.

    2. Re:women rejoice by HatofPig · · Score: 3, Funny

      When she told me she was a necrophiliac, I should have gotten the hint!

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      Silicon & Charybdis McLuhan Kildall Papert Kay
    3. Re:women rejoice by Gaygirlie · · Score: 2

      Not over my dead body!

  2. Pfizer patent by BoogeyOfTheMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    "...can remain in a hardened state for extended periods of time using little energy."

    Didn't Pfizer patent this?

    1. Re:Pfizer patent by BackwardPawn · · Score: 2

      Collecting licensing fees can be a bit sticky, though.

  3. Japanese men rejoice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Japanese men rejoice. Tentacle porn is no longer limited to a drawn form.

  4. Cable driven trunks. by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Cable driven trunks. by EdZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is cheaper, because it only needs 3 servos for the entire arm, rather than 3 for each arm segment, and still maintain independent segment motion. You can lock (jam) all arm segments, release one for motion, move it (reshape that segment) while keeping the others rigid, then lock it again.

  5. Re:Now that's clever. by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
  6. Taken from the last line... by idbeholda · · Score: 2

    "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".

  7. We've secretly replaced by Intropy · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  8. What could possibly go wrong? by xt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Following the second link of TFA, I saw the picture of the robot and it was somehow familiar... What could possibly go wrong?

  9. AND THIS JUST PROVES by jimmydevice · · Score: 2

    my caps lock was on, and you're thinking the same thing Everyone else was. Pervert.

  10. NOT a dividend of space exploration by timeOday · · Score: 2
    Since this is powered by ambient air pressure I guess NASA won't be too interested. On the flipside, the concept might be fantastically powerful underwater.

    .

    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.

    1. Re:NOT a dividend of space exploration by Dekker3D · · Score: 2

      It might be possible to create a sheath around the arm (after all, there are no sharp or otherwise dangerous parts sticking out of it) that would give it some pressure. That way, it could work in space.

  11. Re:Brew my own by Barbara,+not+Barbie · · Score: 2

    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.

    Roomba to the rescue!

    Hey, how well does this coffee robot run Java? And is Oracle going to sue MIT?

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