DailyDirt: Rise Of Flexible Robots (original) (raw)

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Robot researchers often look to biology for inspiration because nature has evolved some pretty efficient means of locomotion and self-assembly. The idea of a robot that has a stiff metal body is being replaced by more lightweight, flexible and organic designs and materials. Robot parts made from various polymers could lead to some interesting biomimicry. Here are just a few examples.

• Researchers have created a self-assembling robot that starts as a flat sheet of paper and plastic (and some not-so-flat electronics) and can walk around in under 5 minutes. The prototype cost about $100 in parts and uses some origami techniques to allow the bot to spring into action. [url]
• Robot parts that can be 3D printed and incorporate self-assembling components could be the building blocks of re-configurable or self-replicating machines. Machines making machines? How perverse! [url]
• Making robots out of elastomeric materials can result in flexible and extremely modular designs. Skynet is pretty far from making liquid-metal Terminators, and these T-1000 ancestors aren’t too intimidating. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: 3d printing, biomimicry, origami, robots, self-assembly, self-replicating