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Scientists Have Built Robot Muscles That Can Lift 1,000 Times Their Own Weight (qz.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) announced today (Nov. 27) that they've created robotic "muscles" that can lift up to 1,000 times their own weight. The simple objects are constructed out of metal or plastic "skeletons" that are covered in either a liquid or air, and then sealed in plastic or fabric "skins." The muscle pulls taught when a vacuum is created inside the skin, and goes slack when the vacuum is released. By folding the skeletons in different ways, the vacuum can pull the muscle in different directions. "Vacuum-based muscles have a lower risk of rupture, failure, and damage, and they don't expand when they're operating, so you can integrate them into closer-fitting robots on the human body," Daniel Vogt, a research engineer at the Wyss Institute, said in a release.
These new structures are also surprisingly cheap. As they don't require anything other than water or air to move them, the researchers told Harvard that a single muscle can be built in about 10 minutes, for less than $1. (Obviously, there'd still be a cost for the vacuum or whatever is being used to change the pressure of the muscles.)
These new structures are also surprisingly cheap. As they don't require anything other than water or air to move them, the researchers told Harvard that a single muscle can be built in about 10 minutes, for less than $1. (Obviously, there'd still be a cost for the vacuum or whatever is being used to change the pressure of the muscles.)
... or in 30 years after Boston Dynamics patents expire and we have the reasonably sized fusion reactors that we've been promised for like 50 years...
I don't want my army of killer robots going limp the moment you decide to escape into space.
The catch is they only weigh 2 nanograms. Silly "scientists".
'Scientists' rediscover flexible pneumatics.
For about the thousandth time.
I wonder when they will discover they can use a lever to increase for force applied!
Perhaps also something round to allow the device to smoothly move over the ground!
The picture in the article looks just like the erector set 'claw' I had in the 80s, if you covered it's 'fingers' with a balloon.
Patents expire after 20 years.
Nobody promised you a fusion reactor. That was the moron talking head on the TV not understanding the story.
Not even close to what I'm puttin up. You even lyft brah? NERDS!
Only a dollar, not counting all of the other expenses required to exploit the technique in anything resembling a reliable, portable, battery-feasible practical application.
My SUV runs on lug nuts and body panel rivets that only cost pennies each to manufacture!
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I played with this in the '90s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I'm sure these vacuum muscles are great. The paper is actually very nice and exceptionally detailed. I really could not ask for more, technically. My problem is with the "built for $1 in 10 minutes" part of this being included in a scientific paper (although buried in Table S3 in the supplement).
I am a scientist. I know how this works. "Scientific" conclusions require support through data, modeling, or citation in the text. Then there are the statements presented as fact, but are actually put there to get funding or attention. This "$1" statement is one of those. It's lazy, misleading, and bad science.
Cost is a quantitative metric, an easily measured value. Give us the actual cost. How much was spent? How many did you make? That number makes a lot of scientists uncomfortable, there's a lot of developmental costs associated with that... but it's honest.
Quoting vague times and estimates of minimal material doesn't incorporate equipment, training, and expertise required to make something. This was a problem with a promising paper based microfluidics project I reviewed (also DARPA funded) a few years ago. It turns out there was one guy in the lab who could actually make some of the chemicals required, and he wasn't able to effectively transfer that knowledge to anyone else for many years. It doesn't matter what something is made of or how quick it is to make; if only one person in a team of PhDs can make the process work, it's not going to be cheap any time soon (maybe one day...). So while the cost quoted in the literature for the devices was pennies, millions of dollars was spent on (failed) training that was not accounted for.
If you really want to show that you have something manufacturable without actually doing manufacturing, have an intern manufacture widgets for you for a while. Keep track of training and oversight time as well as yield rates and scrap material, and use all that to report projected costs.
When I get old enough that my natural muscles start failing me, I will expect these to be ready to be used as replacements. The above-and-beyond super-strength is a nice side-benefit.
I will, of course, also need a cure for age-related cognitive decline by then.
Pretty sure I can't lift ONE time my own weight..
(Obviously, there'd still be a cost for the vacuum or whatever is being used to change the pressure of the muscles.)
But if we use up all our vacuum on robot muscles, when future generations look for vacuum they'll find nothing! That would really suck!
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
Not only that, but assuming they had some secret sauce recipe, the patents are likely ten years old already.
Where do you get vacuum?
An artificial arm with this technology would be fantastic, light weight, cheap and flexible like its organic counterpart. But there are draw backs
1)It is strong to its weight but its weight is low, it needs to be strong flat out and these systems look like a child could pull them open even under tension.
2)It is slow, which for some operations still leaves it within the realm of practical but for the majority of applications this is unacceptable.
3)Flex fatigue would be a factor, in a lab just to demonstrate with fresh materials it looks good, but in the real world where things get scratched and wear down I cannot honestly see one of these muscles lasting beyond a month in indoor conditions before fraying and failing (most appear to need the entire surface to be unbroken to maintain a seal). In outdoor conditions this would occur much faster and water based units would be highly temperature sensitive.
This technology also looks identical to technology I observed decades ago which never went anywhere for the above stated reasons. Industry standard is not vacuum based but servo motor based. Servo motors are stronger, faster and more robust in real world conditions.
Stop infantilizing university students and give them a tough love approach, the idea was proven bad long ago. Revisiting this area of research does nothing to serve humanities needs.
Given the number of systems that are being "taught" these days, it's kinda important to distinguish "taut" from "taught". Pity TFS author hasn't learned the difference.
OK, if you want to read a story you'll never be able to forget, read about the little girl that was eviscerated by the suction of a pool filter and the action of her somewhat dense mommy. Or, on second thought, don't read that. It's too nasty.
There are risks to high suction next to the human body. Especially sick and weak ones.
Bruce Perens.
By that time Elon will offer us a round trip to the nearest black hole in his BFR-7 to collect some of the much needed vacuum.
HE INVENTS EVERYTHING
The disadvantage of basing it on vacuum pressure is that their force is limited to ambient pressure. For sea level that's 14.7 PSI, or about 10 Newtons per square cm of muscle cross sectional area. The typical human muscle can pull with a force of about 35 N/cm^2. So these artificial muscles are considerably weaker than biological muscles. Sorry all you Mechwarrior fans.
It might turn out to be useful in underwater applications. Pressure underwater increases by 1 atmosphere approximately every 10 meters of depth, so it wouldn't take much depth to greatly exceed human musclepower. The problem might actually be being able to pull a vacuum under those pressures.
Incidentally, air pressure is also what they use to make zero-g weightlifting exercise equipment.
Taut.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
I have seen your posts more and more lately and I have to say, you are not a pleasant person. Did you go through a divorce lately and are taking it out on strangers?
Westworld here we come!
The vaccum pump is the muscle, whatâ(TM)s being described as the muscle here is more like a tendon; it isnâ(TM)t generating the mechanical energy. Does a cable attached to a winch count as a muscle?
Just in case this isn't clear to everyone and even by forgetting about different aspects highly constraining what/how can be lifted, note that an equivalent resisting force is required to help during the process and keep it up. If you rely on air, you would need to carry a mass of air equivalent to what you would be lifting. That's why the typical robo-exoskeleton shown in movies allowing a random person to lift 1 ton is plainly impossible: that person would have to provide most of the required force reacting to that ton.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
was compressor weight included in calculations?
They don't have to be chemically-driven, but at the very least a muscle should be a self-contained unit. If you have to have a central pump (vacuum, hydraulic, etc) it's not a muscle, it's a piston. The difference is that a muscle is something you can stick in place and just need a power source to drive, whereas a piston requires that thing plus the power source plus some kind of transformer (in this case electric to pnumatic) to operate and is in turn much heavier, noisier, etc.
Unity, Duty, Destiny!
Pictomuscles, grow away!
Robots will certainly be useful in construction. Not so dangerous as weapons as the summary suggested.
Well done MIT, you've invented the piston.
Just asking,
Does that x1000 include the weight of the vaccum?
Elok
This tech would be useful in a high-radiation environment.
While some particularly clever implementation may qualify as invention, the concept has been known. Devices for smooth motion have uses simple fabric/plastic structures along with air pressure or vacuum already. A flexible silicone hose surrounded by plastic mesh makes a great actuator for very smooth and vibration free motion. It can work on pressure but very similar structures can use vacuum. These structures have been known and used for a long time.
The core problem with vacuum is the ~16 psi max potential force. So surface area where the pressure difference actually expresses itself as motion along with the difference between ambient pressure and the vacuum used is the limiting factor.
Down with the freebirth scum! For the clans!
Um, a vacuum weighs nothing, by definition.
Perhaps you meant pump?
But there are better fluids, and these will see use in larger, serious applications.
Then the fun begins.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
ah those dissaffected howls of rage from repubs!
Can anyone say mimics hydraulics?
1. let's use a ziplock(tm) bag!
2. let's use 3D printed geometric folding shapes inside the ziplock(tim) bag!
3. let's suck all the air out and see how it folds onto itself!
4. let's call it a muscle!
5. let's add some trap music to our intro!
6. profit!
Whaddya mean "by then"? You need a cure NOW.
Whoosh!
Patents expire after 20 years.
Not only that, the time starts on the filing date, and let assume that there is no extension (e.g. delay issue created by the USPTO side) and they will pay the due (fees) for the whole time of the patent if it is granted.
good for pinching humans in half too!
Do you want Skynet ants? Because that's how you get Skynet ants.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
you should just embrace it. Super strong, poop in the pants, no idea that guy in front of you is NOT your preacher...
i like it.
Also, this is a pretty cool thing, no matter how much you pathetic losers feel the obsession to shit on it.