XRL Hexapod Robot Gets a Tail, Learns To Use It. Humanoid Robot Has Muscles, Joints and Tendons. Technophobes beware — the Eccerobot may be your worst nightmare. A team of scientists have created a robot inspired by the human build, so it can act more like living, breathing people. The Eccerobot team aims to create robots with bones and joints, making movements more rounded and not so robotic.
The idea behind the project is that human capabilities stem from the intricacies of our skeletal and muscular systems. The Eccerobot, having muscles and bones — forearm rotators and shoulder blades — will allow for complex movements. Copying the mechanics of our intricate bodies, the scientists helped relieve some of the limitations of robotic bodies. Typical robots are built with standard engineering techniques with stiff parts.
The completed robot model now is a half-torso that sits on a mobile platform. SEE ALSO: Scientists Train Robots to Better Understand Humans [VIDEO] Other parts include high-speed, high-definition cameras for eyes. Origami Robots Run Only on Air | Wired Science. Powered by nothing more than puffs of air, robots molded from paper and silicone rubber can bend, twist, grip and even lift more than 100 times their weight. The pneumatic prototypes aren’t as advanced as their metallic brothers, and the “soft” robots contain no electronics yet. But their creators, funded by Darpa, imagine applications where a soft-bot might be the best tool. “If you want to go through a winding tube or rubble or some other tough environment that’s difficult to reach, you need to be flexible,” said chemist Xin Chen of Boston University, member of a team who describes their work in a Feb. 9 Advanced Functional Materials paper.
“Soft robots can go a lot of places where hard robots cannot go.” Robots crafted from metal or other hard materials, filled with electronics and powered by electricity are the mainstays of robotics. As a result, engineers have looked to nature for ideas, with models inspired by insects, birds, snakes, fish and even dogs. Images: Ramses V. HECTOR insect-inspired hexapod walking robot is a smooth operator (video)
Robot Locomotion Group.