Engineering news
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems integrated artificial muscles into hexagonal exoskeletons embedded with magnets for quick mechanical and electrical connections.
Each Hexel module, as they're known, is made of six lightweight glass plates. The inner joints are driven by hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic artificial muscles. When a high voltage is applied to the module, these muscles activate, rotating the hexagon and changing its shape from long and narrow to wide and flat.
“Combining soft and rigid components in this way enables high strokes and high speeds. By connecting several modules, we can create new robot geometries and repurpose them for changing needs,” said Ellen Rumley, a visiting researcher from the University of Colorado Boulder.
A video shows the capabilities of the new robots. A group is able to crawl through a narrow gap, while another can actuate so fast that it's able to leap into the air. Depending on how the modules are combined, the robots move in different ways – the team combined several to make a robot that can roll around quickly.
“In general, it makes a lot of sense to develop robots with reconfigurable capabilities. It’s a sustainable design option – instead of buying five different robots for five different purposes, we can build many different robots by using the same components. Robots made from reconfigurable modules could be rearranged on demand to provide more versatility than specialised systems, which could be beneficial in resource-limited environments," said Zachary Yoder, a co-author on the publication in the journal
Science Robotics, and a PhD student in the Robotic Materials Department at Boulder.
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