ETH Develops 'Lighter, Safer, More Robust' Artificial Muscles For Robots Robotics & Automation News

(MENAFN- Robotics & Automation News) Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed artificial muscles for robot motion. The researchers say their solution offers several advantages over previous technologies: it can be used wherever robots need to be soft rather than rigid or where they need more sensitivity when interacting with their environment.

Many roboticists dream of building robots that are not just a combination of metal or other hard materials and motors but also softer and more adaptable. Soft robots could interact with their environment in a completely different way; for example, they could cushion impacts the way human limbs do, or grasp an object delicately.

This would also offer benefits regarding energy consumption: robot motion today usually requires a lot of energy to maintain a position, whereas soft systems could store energy well, too. So, what could be more obvious than to take the human muscle as a model and attempt to recreate it?

The functioning of artificial muscles is thus based on biology. Like their natural counterparts, artificial muscles contract in response to an electrical impulse.

However, the artificial muscles consist not of cells and fibres but of a pouch filled with a liquid (usually oil), the shell of which is partially covered in electrodes.

class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block;" data-ad-client="ca-pub-6033737614224062" data-ad-slot="7061071681"

MENAFN02022024005532012229ID1107803126