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First Soft-Bodied Robots Planned
Boston (UPI) Jan 26, 2007 U.S. scientists say they plan to create a new class of technology designed to produce completely soft-bodied robots. Tufts University researchers say such robots -- based on biological materials and the adaptive mechanisms found in living cells and organisms -- could repair space stations, conduct safer surgical procedures and work in hazardous environments such as landmine fields. Biology Professor Barry Trimmer and biomedical engineering Professor David Kaplan are co-directors of the Biomimetic Technologies for Soft-bodied Robots project, funded under a $730,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. "A major characteristic that distinguishes man-made structures from biological ones is the preponderance of stiff materials," said Trimmer. "In contrast, living systems may contain stiff materials, such as bone and cuticle, but their fundamental building blocks are soft and elastic. "This distinction between biological and man-made objects is so pervasive that our evaluation of artificial or living structures is often made on the basis of the materials alone," he added. "Many machines incorporate flexible materials at their joints and can be tremendously fast, strong and powerful, but there is no current technology that can match the performance of an animal moving through natural terrain."
Source: United Press International Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links All about the robots on Earth and beyond! All about the robots on Earth and beyond!
Conceptualizing A Cyborg
University Park (SPX) Jan 23, 2007Investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine describe the basis for developing a biological interface that could link a patient's nervous system to a thought-driven artificial limb. Their conceptual framework - which brings together years of spinal-cord injury research - is published in the January issue of Neurosurgery. |
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