When one thinks of robots, rigid, single-minded beings come to mind, basically mechanical assistants that are the inspiration for The Robot. But what if they were more fluid? More intuitive? More...all-purpose? Three scientists may have just built the first stepping stones on the road to making Transformers a reality.
Neil Gershenfeld from the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, visiting scientist Ara Knaian, and graduate student Kenneth Cheung worked together on building the world's smallest chain robot named the milli-motein. The robot's transformable nature was designed based off proteins, which manipulate themselves into almost any shape.
"It's effectively a one-dimensional robot that can be made in a continuous strip, without conventionally moving parts, and then folded into arbitrary shapes," Gershenfeld said.
The milli-motein might not seem like much, but it's the potential the robot has opened up that is exciting.
To begin with, the team had to come up with a motor that was both tiny and could hold its position even with no power. Instead of proteins, this time the scientists turned to the scrapyard for inspiration.
What they did was create a small electromagnetic motor that works much the ones in scrapyards that lift cars. One giant magnet is permanent, meaning it's always putting out a magnetic field, and the the other is a weaker magnet whose magnetic field can be manipulated with electric currents. With a simple switch, the magnetic fields can either cancel or empower each other. The key feature is that this method requires less power than powering a giant electromagnet.
The milli-motein's motor uses a series of permanent magnets and electromagnets to power small steel rings. What's amazing is that this method allows the robot to only use power to adjust its shape, but not to hold it.
"They do not take power in either the on or the off state, but only use power in the changing state," Knaian explained.
On a larger scale, this kind of technology has many implications. Hod Lipson, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and computing and information science at Cornell University explains the approach Gershenfeld and his team are taking.
"This result brings us closer to the idea of programmable matter -- where computer programs and materials merge to form a new kind of matter whose shape and function can be programmed -- not unlike biology. Many people are excited today to learn about 3-D printing and its ability to fabricate any shape; Gershenfeld's group is already thinking about the next episode, where we don't just control the shape of objects, but also their behavior."
Instead of a robot being specifically designed and programmed for one purpose, it could be able to perform a variety of tasks, shapeshifting to fulfill its task. Factories would be able to cut down equipment costs. Households could one day see an all-in-one maid/lawnmower/dishwasher.
So far, the data for the shapes has to be inputted from an external source, i.e. an off-board device. The scientists hope that one day the data can be embedded within the robotic components themselves, allowing for autonomous behavior. The best part is, if Gershenfeld's team succeed, these 'Transformer' robots wouldn't have to be told what to do - imagine never having to tell someone to take out the trash and mow the lawn ever again.
You can learn more about the MIT "Millibiology" Project at the official website.
Check back tomorrow for another installment of our Applied Robotics series titled: "Applied Robotics: How Robots Could Change Life - The Big Dog Can Carry Your Load."
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