Researchers have found a way to create ‘soft robots’ using balloons that change shape when inflated with air. The new tech has come in handy to develop robots with a gripping hand, a fishtail, and a moving coil.
Unlike the conventional rigid robots, these soft robots are “naturally geared to interact with the soft stuff, like humans or tomatoes,” assistant professor of chemical and biological at Pierre-Thomas Brun at Princeton says.
More challenging than rigid robots
This will enable them to be more useful for harvesting food, taking items off a conveyor belt, or offering health care. Besides, under-the-skin devices could also help patients with heart issues. The robots are made by injecting bubbles into a liquid polymer known as elastomer, which becomes rubbery when in a solid-state.
The polymer can be bent and moved by inflating it. Gravity helps the bubble rise to the top as the elastomer reaches the bottom; once it becomes hard, it can be removed from the mold and inflated. Developing the robots isn’t easy; controlling their form is more challenging when compared to rigid robots as they can change in an infinite number of ways.
Factors including the thickness of the elastomer coating, how quickly it settles, and how long it takes to harden all are important to determine how the robot will move.
Researchers want to make more advanced robots
“If it’s allowed more time to drain before curing, the film at the top will be thinner. And the thinner the film, the more it will stretch when you inflate it and cause greater overall bending,” Trevor Jones, a chemical and biological engineering researcher.
The researchers aim to further develop these robots that can move in sequential waves, or which contract and relax from a single source. “We understand this problem at a physics level pretty strongly,” said Jones. “So now the robotics can really be explored.”
Previously, researchers at UC Riverside developed pneumatic computer memory that will enable soft robots to play the piano. The “air-powered” memory depends on microfluidic valves instead of conventional transistors and electric circuits.
