Biomimetic Technologies" project will create first soft-bodied robots

Citation

(2007), "Biomimetic Technologies" project will create first soft-bodied robots", Industrial Robot, Vol. 34 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2007.04934dab.003

"Biomimetic Technologies" project will create first soft-bodied robots

“Biomimetic Technologies” project will create first soft-bodied robots

While robots have moved from the realm of science fiction to a myriad of real-life uses, the potential of the “hard- bodied” robots of the twenty-first century remains limited by their stiff construction and lack of flexibility. A group of researchers at Tufts University has launched a multidisciplinary initiative focused on the science and engineering of a new class of robots that are completely soft-bodied. These devices will make possible advances in such far flung arenas as medicine and space exploration.

Barry Trimmer, Professor of Biology, and David Kaplan, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, are Co- directors of the Biomimetic Technologies for Soft-Bodied Robots project, which represents a consortium of seven Tufts faculty members from five departments in the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences. The project has just been awarded a grant of $730,000 from the W.M. Keck Foundation.

According to Kaplan, the project will bring together biology, bioengineering and micro/nano fabrication. “Our overall goal is to develop systems and devices – soft-bodied robots – based on biological materials and on the adaptive mechanisms found in living cells, tissues and whole organisms,” he explains. These devices, he notes, will have direct applications in robotics, such as manufacturing, emergency search and retrieval, and repair and maintenance of equipment in space; in medical diagnosis and treatment, including endoscopy, remote surgery, and prostheses design; and in novel electronics such as soft circuits and power supplies.

“A major characteristic that distinguishes man-made structures from biological ones is the preponderance of stiff materials,” explains Trimmer. “In contrast, living systems may contain stiff materials such as bone and cuticle but their fundamental building blocks are soft and elastic. This distinction between biological and man-made objects is so pervasive that our evaluation of artificial or living structures is often made on the basis of the materials alone. Many machines incorporate flexible materials at their joints and can be tremendously fast, strong and powerful, but there is no current technology that can match the performance of an animal moving through natural terrain.”

First, “Molecules to Robots” Effort.

The Tufts team represents the first major effort to design a truly soft- bodied locomoting robot with the workspace capabilities similar to those of a living animal. While other groups around the world are applying biomimetic approaches to engineering design, most focus on narrow areas within this field.

“This represents a wonderfully rich and novel collaboration that takes a comprehensive `molecules to robots' approach to the use of soft materials,” notes Linda M. Abriola, Dean of the Tufts School of Engineering.

Work will focus on four primary areas: control systems for soft-bodied robots, biomimetic and bionic materials, robot design and construction, and development and application of research-based platform technologies.