The Squishy Future of Robotics

An anonymous reader writes "The field of soft robotics is fast growing and may be the key to allowing robots and humans to work side-by-side. 'Roboticists are prejudiced toward rigid structures, for which algorithms can be inherited from the well-established factory robot industry. Soft robots solve two huge problems with current robots, however. They don't have to calculate their movements as precisely as hard robots, which rely on springs and joints, making them better for navigating uncontrolled environments like a house, disaster area, or hospital room. They're naturally "cage free," meaning they can work shoulder-to-shoulder with humans. If a soft robot tips over or malfunctions, the danger is on par with being attacked by a pillow. The robot is also less prone to hurt itself.'"

Comments

Leaps and bounds

[12WTF$]

Yep, robotics is progressing in leaps and bounds...

Behold the BionicKangaroo

http://www.festo.com/cms/en_co...

Just look at it!

attacked by a pillow

[confused one]

Sure.... attacked by a 500 lb Kevlar reinforced pillow that can wrap around a body and sqeeze it until it pops like a zit.

OK, some of the search and rescue applications using the soft robots are a great idea; and, robots, in general, are useful tools. But a robot is a machine. Machines break. Computers malfunction. A small S&R robot has a small but measurable risk profile. If it's in a med-surgical application then it has the ability to do damage to the body of either the patient or the attending medical staff, should it malfunction. If it can perform industrial tasks, like lifting a car, then it can equally as well crush a person. One cannot say, "Look, it's soft and squishy" and ignore safety factors.

Re:attacked by a pillow

[Stuarticus]

Shut up with your common sense and welcome your new cuddly overlords.

Re:attacked by a pillow

[gl4ss]

And the Earth could be sterilized by a gamma ray burst at any second. I don't think the article meant to imply that there is an absolutely zero level of risk associated with these robots.

oh really? what about the pillow analogy then?

though.. maybe they just mean malfunction mode as in "goes limb". a python dropping from the tree dead can hurt you pretty badly though too, soft or not.

Humans and robots working together.

[mjwx]

Coming to your office in the near future:

Frank: Steve, did you fart?
Steve: uh... no, must of been RB24-VQ11
Frank: Jesus VQ, that's rancid.

Festo has been doing this for years.

[Animats]

Every year, Festo, the German robotics company, builds an exotic new kind of robot as a demo. Many of their robots have been "soft".

• The Festo Aqua Penguin which, like a penguin, "flies" in water.
• The Festo Air Jelly, a flying jellyfish. Lighter than air.
• The Festo Air Penguin, another lighter than air flyer, with flapping wings and good control.
• The Festo Bionic Handling Assistant, an air-driven flexible hand. Looks a lot like what these academics are trying to do, but it came out in 2010 and works fine.
• The Festo Smart Bird, which looks like a bird and flies like a bird, very well.

Here's their whole list of experimental projects. They've been doing "soft robots" since 2007. Others were doing "soft robots" before that, but the control usually wasn't that good. Festo builds soft robots with smooth, precise control. Festo's specialty is precise control of pneumatic systems, so they know how to do this.

Re:Festo has been doing this for years.

[rioki]

The reason why Festo's robots are so different from other robots, is because Festo is not a robotics company, but a producer of pneumatic components. Many of their creations are along the lines, if all you got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Many of them are really interesting, because they are so radically different, simply because they approach the problems differently.

First of all, it's a question of power

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a question of a robot being soft. It's a question of

1) having force feedback and not exerting too much force,
2) avoiding high energy collisions.

Ergo, the robot should be light weigt, low power, and equipped with force sensors. There're robots like this on the market. And these robots are already certified safe to be used without a cage. Look for Universal Robots, for instance.

The problem with such robots is very low payload. Typically, it's 3-5 kg max. It may be helpful in the kitchen, but not much elsewhere.

On the other hand, equip a pillow with a 8 kW motor, and you have 10 horses kicking.

Re:Rule 34

[rioki]

Yea... the entire article had me thinking of, "look at all the applications", in Bed.