iRobot is developing a soft mobile morphing robots, designed to crawl through tiny holes and cracks.
Researchers from iRobot and the University of Chicago discussed their palm-sized soft robot, known as a chemical robot, or chembot, at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems yesterday. It's "the first demonstration of a completely soft, mobile robot using jamming as an enabling technology," they write in a paper presented at the conference.The concept of "jamming skin enabled locomotion" is explained quite nicely in the video. The polymer used for the bot's stretchy skin is off-the-shelf silicone two-part rubber.
iRobot's Shape-Shifting Blob 'Bot Takes Its First Steps( Thanks, Gever!)
RSS Feed
Shoggoth!
Ia! Ia! Ia Rl'yeh'd a 20! Critical squelch!
I, for one, welcome our repeatedly flaccid and rigid robot overlords.
I cant help but think of eXistenZ when I see this
we already have that kind of overlord.
No exactly a Mighty Morphing power ranger
It's a baby rover!
Be seeing you...
That's the craziest head of cabbage I've ever seen.
What a great presentation. Encouraging to see someone taking real care in how they explain and present their work. The hand-drawn animated explanation was a nice touch.
Great great great great great great great grandfather of the T-1000
I just caught myself clenching my behind. :0