When you imagine the robots of the future what do you picture?
Humanoids made of steel?
Massive metal monsters?
Turns out, they might be a little squishier.
If you haven’t noticed, evolution of biological life has done a pretty good job at making
things perfectly equipped to interact with our world.
And now, robotics is starting to follow suit, in an emerging field called soft robotics.
You’ve probably seen this little guy from MIT swimming through your social media timelines.
Look at him go!
This autonomous fishbot can swim right alongside marine life, giving biologists a whole new
way to observe this ecosystem.
And there’s other tech helping scientists study the ocean, like this underwater microphone
aboard the Seeker Vessel!
Long distance swimmer Ben Lecomte and crew are on an expedition to gather data to raise
awareness about ocean health.
Their hydrophone records the secret sounds of the deep.
Hydrophones and soft robots could be important conservation tools in the future, because
they’re uniquely suited to work with their environment.
And these bots in particular draw inspiration from nature for their designs.
But before I get into all that, let’s tackle how these squishy bots actually work in the
first place.
The main characteristic of a soft robot is that, well, it’s soft.
Instead of traditional materials, the body is constructed out of rubber, polymers, and
sometimes even fabric.
But it’s harder to adapt the components that make the bot move, like the actuators
- These have to be radically rethought for soft bots, since traditional robots tend to
use electric motors that are difficult to downsize.
So, instead some use hydraulics or pneumatics to push air or water through the soft body
parts in a way that creates predictable motion.
Others use shape memory alloys that change shape when exposed to heat, so when a limb
is heated, it will unfurl or coil up in a particular way.
Some researchers are even looking into replacing actuators with soft, LIVING MUSCLES, which
is [WHOA], and, a whole video of its own.
When it comes to the power source, some of these guys- like our friendly robo fish - rely
on small lithium ion batteries.
But there’s also a lot of experimentation in this part of the field - from hydrogel
batteries (which we’ve covered on the channel before) to ditching batteries all together
and using chemical energy from hydrocarbons.
But, soft robotics still has some limitations.
Many robots still require tethers to electrical or pneumatic devices because we haven’t
figured out how to integrate these onboard the robot, just yet.
That hasn't stopped engineers from tinkering with new robots, and there are some really
cool ones in action!
One such example is the octopus robot from BioRobotics.
Inspired by the squishy but strong nature of octopus tentacles, This robot uses synthetic
arms that rely on shape memory alloys to grasp, and even crawl- allowing the robot to travel
underwater.
Octopuses have also inspired gripping robots,like this one from Harvard- that can gently pick
up marine life from the ocean floor so biologists can study them.
What makes all of these robots so promising is the way they easily adapt to new tasks
and environments, unlike traditional robots that would need to be frequently modified
or reprogrammed.
This also means they have a ton of applications.
They could one day be used in rescue missions that require squeezing through small spaces
and traversing over rugged terrain.
Or these soft, biocompatible robots could be used inside your body for medical diagnosis
& treatment.
To be honest, I’m kind of surprised it’s taken us this long to start making soft robots.
I mean when you look at animals--which are debatably the best examples we have for adapting
to new environments -- they’re pretty much all soft!
Humans ourselves are less than 15% rigid material!
But, I suppose, biological evolution did take millions of years, and to be fair, robot evolution
has only just begun.
To stay up to date with the latest soft robot updates, subscribe!
And to check out the crazy sounds Ben and his crew recorded with their hydrophone- watch
their latest episode here.
This data will help us learn about our largest ocean’s marine life AND help us to protect
it!
Can’t get much cooler than that.
Thanks for watching.