July 10, 2015 07:23am ETNew Hybrid Robot Has Soft 'Skin' But Hard 'Guts'  

Roboticists created this hybrid robot that has a soft exterior but a hard interior. Credit: Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of E ngineering and Applied Sciences View full size image

It may seem soft and squishy to the touch, but a new robot is tough on the inside and ready to pounce, researchers say.

The 3D-printed bot has hard insides but a soft exterior, and this blend of materials makes it much better at explosion-powered jumps than droids that are either completely hard or completely soft, according to a new study.

Such leaping robots could one day come in handy in harsh environments too dangerous for humans, particularly because the bots are capable of surviving hard falls and other unforeseen circumstances, scientists added. [The 6 Strangest Robots Ever Created]

"One wild potential application would be in space — on the moon or Mars or other planets," said study co-lead author Nicholas Bartlett, a roboticist at Harvard University. "These are unpredictable environments, and a soft robot that can bend and adapt to such environments and put up with a lot of punishment could be really useful. You could also think of more practical applications, such as search-and-rescue missions in disaster scenarios such as collapsed buildings, where a soft robot could go where no wheeled robot could navigate."

Hard vs. soft

Conventional robots are typically rigid creations. Although they can be fast, precise and strong, this rigidity makes them vulnerable to harm from bumps, scrapes, twists and falls, and also prevents them from being able to wriggle past obstacles.

Increasingly, researchers are developing robots made from soft, elastic plastic and rubber, inspired by worms and starfish. These soft robots are resistant to many kinds of damage, and are able to overcome obstacles that can impede hard robots. But, their floppy nature can make them slow, weak and clumsy. Moreover, they often are not completely soft, since they require such hard components as motors, pumps, batteries and sensors, which also tend to be fragile.

Now, scientists have created a robot made up of both hard and soft parts that combines the best of both types. The idea of blending soft and hard materials in a robot's body came from nature, Bartlett said.

"The octopus has an almost entirely soft body, but a rigid beak, and when you look at the interface between the body and the beak, it's not an abrupt transition, but a gradual shift between hard and soft," Bartlett told Live Science. "Evolution has had a head start on us for many millions of years — why not take tried-and-tested designs and use them for inspiration with our machines?"

The researchers created the new robot using 3D printing, which creates items by layering materials such as rubber and plastic, just as ordinary printers lay down ink. However, 3D printers can lay flat layers on top of each other to build 3D objects. The droid weighed about 2.1 lbs. (965 grams). [The 10 Weirdest Things Created By 3D Printing]

Soft robots typically move their limbs by using air compressors that force bursts of air in and out of a series of pneumatic channels running through their appendages. Recently, the researchers pioneered a way to use explosive force to propel rubbery bots more quickly.

Jumping machine

The robot consists of a soft, three-legged body that absorbs impacts and a core that houses key components such as a battery, oxygen cartridge, butane cell, air compressor and a combustion chamber. The robot's core is made of two nested hemispheres — the bottom hemisphere is essentially a soft belly, while the top hemisphere is made of nine different layers of material, ranging from highly flexible to fully rigid, with the hardest layer a thousand times stiffer than the softest one.

The combustion-powered robot has three pneumatic legs and a belly that can flex. To move, the robot first inflates its pneumatic legs to tilt its body in the direction it wants to go. It then ignites a mix of oxygen and butane inside its combustion chamber, forcing its belly to flex outward, which catapults the robot into the air. This autonomous, untethered bot is capable of completing more than 30 consecutive jumps.

The robot is a powerful jumper. In tests, it reached a height of 2.5 feet (0.75 meters) in vertical leaps, which is about six times its body height. For lateral jumps, the robot moved 0.5 feet (0.15 m), which is roughly half its body width, the researchers said.

Although this hybrid robot could only jump about a quarter of the height that a rigid counterpart could, it was much better at withstanding the impact of landings, the researchers said. In one test, the body of the rigid robot shattered upon landing, surviving a total of just five jumps; in contrast, a hybrid robot that was dropped from the maximum height the rigid robot reached was able to survive 35 falls, they added.

The researchers also suggest the hybrid robot is significantly better at surviving landings than a soft robot. They calculated that the bodies of the all-soft robots absorbed less than three-quarters of the shock of impact that the hybrid robots did.

"We believe that bringing together soft and rigid materials will help create a new generation of fast, agile robots that are more robust and adaptable than their predecessors and can safely work side by side with humans," study co-lead author Michael Tolley, a roboticist at the University of California, San Diego, said in a statement.

新型混合机器人有着具有柔韧性的皮肤

二〇一五年七月十日上午07点23 ETNew混合型机器人具有软'皮肤'，但很难“Guts'

机器人专家创造了这个混合型的机器人，有一个柔软的外表，但硬室内。图片来源：威斯研究所生物启发工程和E ngineering哈佛大学约翰·保尔森A.学校与应用科学查看原图

它可能看起来柔软，湿软的触感，而是一个新的机器人是艰难的在里面，随时准备扑向，研究人员说.

的3D打印机器人具有坚硬的内心却柔软的外表，而这种混合材料使得它更好的防爆供电跳得比机器人是要么完全硬或软的完全根据一项新的研究。

这样的跳跃机器人有朝一日能派上用场的恶劣环境对人类太危险了，特别是因为机器人是能够经受艰苦摔伤等意外情况，科学家补充说。 [6奇怪的机器人有史以来The 6 Strangest Robots Ever Created在月球或火星或其他的星球，＆QUOT;研究共同第一作者尼古拉斯·巴特利特，一个机器人专家在哈佛大学。 ＆QUOT;这些都是不可预知的环境，和柔软的机器人，可以弯曲并适应这样的环境，忍受了很多的惩罚可能是非常有用的。你也可以想到的更实际的应用，如搜索和救援任务的灾难场景，如倒塌的建筑物，其中，软机器人可以去的地方没有轮式机器人可以浏览和QUOT;

硬与软

常规机器人通常是刚性的创作。虽然他们可以快速，精确和强大的，这种刚性使得它们容易受到碰伤，擦伤，曲折伤害和跌倒，也防止它们能够蠕动过去的障碍.

越来越多的研究人员正在开发机器人制成的柔软，弹性塑料和橡胶，灵感来自蠕虫和海星。这些软机器人耐许多种破坏，并能够克服，可以阻碍硬机器人障碍。但是，他们的软盘性质可以让他们缓慢，无力和笨拙。此外，它们往往是不完全柔软，因为它们需要这种硬组件作为电机，泵，电池和传感器，它们也往往是脆弱.

现在，科学家们已经创建由硬软两种部件，它结合了一个机器人最好的两个类型。在机器人的身体融合软，硬质材料的想法来自大自然，巴特利特说.

u0026 QUOT;章鱼有一个几乎完全柔软的身体，但刚性的嘴，当你看到身体和嘴之间的接口，它不是一个突然的转变，但之间的刚柔并济，＆QUOT逐渐转移;巴特利特告诉现场科学。 ＆QUOT;进化已经有一个良好的开端对我们的数百万年＆mdash;为什么不尝试和测试的设计和使用他们的灵感与我们的机器＆QUOT;？

研究人员利用3D打印，通过分层的材料，如橡胶，塑料创建项目创造了新的机器人，就像普通的打印机放下墨水。然而，三维打印机可以躺在彼此的顶部平坦的层来构建3D对象。该机器人重达约2.1磅（965克）。 [创自3D打印10个最古怪的事情The 10 Weirdest Things Created By 3D Printing最近，研究人员首创了一种使用爆发力推动橡胶状机器人更快地.

跳机

该机器人包括吸收冲击的软，三脚体和容纳关键部件，如一个电池芯的，氧盒，丁烷细胞，空气压缩机和燃烧室。机器人的核心是由两个嵌套的半球＆mdash;底部半球本质上是一种柔软的腹部，而顶部半球是由材料的九个不同的层次，范围从高度的灵活性，完全刚性，从最难层比最软的1 .

燃烧为动力的机器人更严厉的一千倍有三个气动腿，腹，可以弯曲。要移动，机器人首先膨胀的气动腿倾斜它的身体在它想要去的方向。然后点燃氧气和丁烷的燃烧室内的混合，迫使其肚子向外弯曲，其中弹射机器人到空气中。这种自主的，不受限制的机器人能够完成连续超过30跳.

机械手是一个功能强大的跳线。在测试中，它达到了2.5英尺（0.75米）在垂直的跨越，这是约六倍体高度的高度。对于横向跳跃，机器人移动0.5英尺（0.15米），这是大约一半的车身宽度，研究人员说.

虽然这种混合的机器人只能跳一下高度的四分之一刚性对应可能，这是多少在承受着陆的冲击更好的，研究人员说。在一次试验中，刚性机器人的本体粉碎后着陆，一共只有五跳存活;与此相反，混合机器人，从最大高度刚性机器人达到下降是能存活35瀑布，它们加入.

研究人员还提出了混合动力机器人是显著更好在存活着陆比软机器人。他们计算出所有的软机器人的身体吸收不到四分之三的影响，混合机器人做.

u0026 QUOT的震撼;我们相信，汇集软，硬质材料，将有助于打造新一代的快，敏捷的机器人，更健壮，适应性比他们的前辈，并可以安全地通过侧与人类携手并肩，＆QUOT;研究的共同第一作者迈克尔·托利，一个机器人专家在加州圣地亚哥大学在一份声明中.

科学家们在7月10日发行的杂志中详细介绍他们的研究结果说，科学.