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Robotic muscles...

I read about this a while back, great stuff and huge potential here. If you look at the way robots are made today with motors in the joints and hydraulics, this 'natural' approach has so much more elegance.

Great stuff! :D

D
 
Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
I read about this a while back, great stuff and huge potential here. If you look at the way robots are made today with motors in the joints and hydraulics, this 'natural' approach has so much more elegance.

Great stuff! :D

D
Click to expand...

*iGav Imagines what it could do for the 2nd Generation 'Realistic Action' self-beating machine.... :eek: :p :p *
 
Originally posted by iGAV
*iGav Imagines what it could do for the 2nd Generation 'Realistic Action' self-beating machine.... :eek: :p :p *
Click to expand...

well, it might have a variable grip :D

and think about those G.I. Joe dolls with the muscles - they'd be able to walk and pose. Makes the toys of today seem rather quaint.

D
 
Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
well, it might have a variable grip :D

and think about those G.I. Joe dolls with the muscles - they'd be able to walk and pose. Makes the toys of today seem rather quaint.

D
Click to expand...

imagine having an ActionMan that could beat you in an arm wrestling contest! :eek: :eek: :p
 
Or a suit you could wear that has these things in it and you'd be a superman.....:D

Even better would be the micro machines that use one strand of this stuff to move - sort of like insects. Low power and tiny.

Oh the potential here.

D
 
And not just robotics and powered suits but cybernetics! Just think of the applications for amputees, once the control and power mechanisms are refined.

That robotic face is cool too...they just have to get it to the point where it doesn't have to be hooked up to multiple computers to work.

Fortunately, I think I'll live to see a lot of the useful applications of these technologies, but die long before AI catches up to the point of a Terminator-like scenario. Timing is everything! :D
 
about 10 years ago, i remember seeing a researcher demo a special ...i'd guess you'd call it a fabric, it wasn't as thick as a muscle but that was the idea... when you ran liquid base through it, it would expand, when you ran liquid acid through it, it would contract. They just never figured out how to keep the two separate enough for repeated use in a contained environment, eg a robot...

paul
 
About the "superman suit" thing.

Actually, there currently are strength-augmentation suits in use by construction companies. Admittedly, these things are still slow and bulky, but they get the job done. I think a much sooner and probable application could be for the robotic dog that the US Army is researching to carry soldiers' gear into battle. With miniaturization of control circuits, and maybe some adaptive neural nets thrown in there, and you've got yourself a personal transport than run across rough terrain. (Of course, I still don't know why the Army picked a dog as the basis for the design. Why not an insect or a crustacean? Maybe it's that "Man's best friend" psychology.)

I think I read somewhere that artificial muscles have been incorporated into prosthetics before, though those were liquid-based. If this technology actually has the reliability, durability, fast reaction times, and controllability necessary for a better prosthesis, it'll sell like hotcakes.

P.S. - the news link doesn't work.

P.P.S. - Another idea: search-and-rescue robots. Imagine a search-and-rescue centipede or snake. That'd be SO much better than a search-and-rescue mini-Abrams.
 
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