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Robotics: Building Soft Robots to be Human Assistants
Robots are being designed to dexterously and safely grab onto and hold objects. The technology to do this is called ‘soft robotics’ and requires feedback circuits that determine the appropriate pressure to apply when holding the object.
Historically, robots have been constructed with rigid materials, but this has led to safety issues when robots need to operate in unstructured environments. Soft robotic technology enable robots to more safely interact with humans.
Zhaojian Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University, said that “we want our robots to understand their environment and understand the humans they’re working with. We want to enable robots and humans to interact and communicate without talking to each other. You want that all to be automatic… We’re developing robots not to replace humans, but to assist humans. We think about it as the robot is your partner. If you don’t trust your partner, you won’t work well with it.”
Samuel I. Stupp, study co-author and director of the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science, said that “conventional robots are typically heavy machines with lots of hardware and electronics that are unable to interact safely with soft structures, including humans. We have designed soft materials with molecular intelligence to enable them to behave like robots of any size and perform useful functions in tiny spaces, underwater or underground.”
Giada Gerboni, a biomedical engineer, said in a TED Talk that “the main objective [of soft robotics] is not to make super-precise machines, because we already have them, but to make robots able to face unexpected situations in the real world.”
The soft robotic market is expected to grow to $2.16 billion by 2024, according to Research and Markets.
