Robots have gone soft on us, literally. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a robot made of silicone rubber that has the ability to determine the size and shape of an object it is holding. Gone are the days of hard metal robotics: this “soft robot” can actually feel what it is holding, which allows it to figure out how hard to grip an item. The design features a claw-like structure with three fingers, resemblant of a claw inside an arcade game. The difference is that this machine can actually continue to hold onto objects rather than letting them slip out of its grasp.
The FEATURES OF THE Soft Robot
The 3-D printed robot, created by the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), has a unique silicone rubber structure that provides stability and flexibility, almost allowing it to emulate the versatility of a human hand. This enables it to firmly grasp irregularly-shaped items. According to Daniela Rus, a co-author of this study and the director of CSAIL:”Grasping is an important step in being able to do useful tasks; with this work we set out to develop both the soft hands and the supporting control and planning systems that make dynamic grasping possible.”
The robot is controlled pneumatically, meaning it utilizes pressurized air to move the fingers of the structure. To understand the shape and size of an object, the robot holds sensors inside its finger tips and uses two different kinds of grasps: a full-handed grasp or a pinching grasp, which carries an object between two fingers.
However, in order for the robot to determine how much pressure to place on an item, the research team has to first train the machine, by making it grasp an object ten times. After doing so, the information is inputed into its software. In the future, scientists hope that the robot will be able to learn on its own by engaging in an action – a behavior familiar to all humans and especially to children, as they grow and mature.
Featured image courtesy of Jason Dorfman/CSAIL/MIT.
