A New Class of Inflatable Robots By OtherLab 44
HizookRobotics writes "Inflatable robots have the potential to be low-cost, lightweight, extremely powerful, and yet 'human safe' — in other words, perfect for many robotics applications. Here are two new examples: a 15-foot-long walking robot (a Pneubot named Ant-Roach) and a complete, inflatable robot arm (plus hand). Both of these robots were developed by Otherlab as part of their 'pneubotics' project (in collaboration with Meka Robotics and Manu Prakash at Stanford University), with some funding from DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program. These robots use textile-based, inflatable actuators that contract upon inflation into specially-designed shapes to effect motion. Since these robots are built out of lightweight fabric-and-air structural members and powered via pneumatics or hydraulics, they exhibit large strength-to-weight ratios. For example, Ant-Roach is less than 70 lbs and can probably support up to 1000 lbs; the inflatable robot arm is less than 2 lbs and can lift a few hundred pounds at 50-60 psi."
Seems like... (Score:3, Funny)
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I think he needs to meet the giant blowup doll and make som pneumobot pr0n.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnDS5wYPH8o [youtube.com]
Not safe for most work environments.
I see... (Score:5, Funny)
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My thoughts exactly :-)
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Yep. So where are the inflato-bot diggers and their awesome nightclub?
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If this Thanksgiving is anything like the last one maybe I'll have a chance to catch up with it again, I think it's only been two years.
:O (Score:1)
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Really! (Score:3)
Ummm... She's my new "Robot!" Really! I swear!
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Quick clarifications (Score:5, Informative)
Good luck to their marketing department (Score:5, Funny)
So, it looks like a giant blue monster out of the darker parts of Japanese adult animation, sounds like dance music played on cheap speakers, walks slowly, and, with that size:weight ratio, probably doesn't do well on windy days. Its "walk on water" demo was a little painful, too.
It's very cool, but I don't envy the guy who has to put together the sales pitch.
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The quoted weights are bullshit (Score:4, Interesting)
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So, cool toys, but they're not going to come stomping down Main Street any time soon, unless they're trailing a reeeeeally long extension cord.
So, kind of like an Eva [wikipedia.org] unit then? :)
Makes me think of the scene from Airplane! (Score:2)
http://youtu.be/rxcoe1Y2Ua8?t=52s [youtu.be]
Inflatable autopilot.
Y
Hmm, where have I seen that before.. (Score:2)
Ant-Roach [hizook.com] reminds me of a tachikoma [turbosquid.com]
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Possible prosthetic applications? (Score:3, Insightful)
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The problem is that you have a compressible fluid in a compliant envelope.
One approach to this issue is to add lockable hard sliders. They act as idlers when unlocked but when engaged provide the required stiffness. For many applications they can be plastic and won't add huge amounts of weight, and the locking mechanism could itself be pneumatically controlled, so it's a relatively small number of additional valves.
Good news... (Score:2)
Good news is if the inflatible robots ever tried to conquer humanity we could fight them with razor blades and a daisy BB gun.
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or just let them nudge us. it'd save us a bundle on massages.
Also Self Assembling Robots (Score:2)
I submitted this story a while back but it never took off - the video of the robot assembling itself from spray foam is pretty cool:
http://news.discovery.com/tech/robot-builds-itself-with-foam-111020.html [discovery.com]
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no, it was posted. and, imo, that concept blows.
i want to see a robot actually build a copy of itself, not get stuck in its own mess and say it "grew"
Tension strips (Score:2)
Where would (Score:2)
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Where would one purchase the air valves to make one of these ? Are these low cost items or expensive specialist things.
Ordinary solenoid on/off air valves are widely used, easily available and cheap. Grainger stocks them, and they show up in surplus stores. Proportional air valves are somewhat exotic items. [proportionair.com]
From the video, it looks like the robot's legs are controlled through simple on-off valves (notice the clicks and the jerky leg motion) but the trunk has full proportional control and feedback.
Precision pneumatics is effective but not used all that much. Most pneumatic actuators are a simple solenoid valve controll
watching that inspect and walk away video (Score:2)
having to watch that "inspect and walk away [youtube.com]" video must be what it's like to have to interview with Herman Cain [freerepublic.com] for a job...