{"id":21366,"date":"2017-07-24T17:39:02","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T21:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=21366"},"modified":"2021-05-22T16:26:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T20:26:26","slug":"uc-santa-barbara-stanford-university-soft-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/uc-santa-barbara-stanford-university-soft-robot\/","title":{"rendered":"Mister Fantastic? UC Santa Barbara and Stanford University Researchers Develop Soft Robot That Stretches From Its Tip"},"content":{"rendered":"

While robots are used in <\/span>manufacturing industries, the military, space exploration, transportation, and medical applications, there hasn\u2019t been one that could extend its reach until now.<\/span> Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Stanford University have <\/span>created<\/span><\/a> a \u201csoft\u201d robot that could extend its tip and change its direction without moving its body. <\/span><\/p>\n

Such a robot would be able to maneuver well in tight or constrained spaces, so it could be used effectively in clearing blockages in arteries or tunneling through debris in search and rescue operations.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The research is <\/span>published<\/span><\/a> in Science Robotics.<\/span><\/p>\n

The inspiration for this soft robot comes from certain forms of nature that grow from their tips, such as climbing vines, fungi, and nerve cells. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the cases where nature uses this type of movement to go somewhere, it\u2019s often trying to create a structure which it can then use,\u201d <\/span>Elliot W. Hawkes<\/span><\/a>, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UCSB, said in a statement. <\/span><\/p>\n

The soft robot is equipped with small pneumatic control chambers and a camera on the tip, which is held in place by a cable that runs through its body and gives visual feedback of the environment. The soft robot grows due to pneumatic pressure from within it, like an inflating balloon, which allows it to transport the things inside it<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPressure is the driving force,\u201d Hawkes said in a statement. <\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s different in the case of the soft robot, in contrast to a balloon, is that the pressure leads only to the tip unfurling. Because the body of the robot itself does not expand, but takes the shape of the tip\u2019s path, it doesn\u2019t lead to a sliding friction between the body and the walls of the environment. This characteristic is key to the robot\u2019s ability to maneuver tight spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps these robots get through really constrained environments because there isn\u2019t any sliding,\u201d Hawkes said in a statement. <\/span><\/p>\n