Lifeboat Foundation

Robots still find it difficult to perform delicate actions, like picking up a soft object without causing damage. A new form of synthetic muscle could offer up some major improvements.

A group of researchers from the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a new type of synthetic soft muscle that can be manufactured using a 3D printer. The material is capable of lifting up to 1,000 times its own weight and boasts fifteen times the strain density (expansion per gram) of natural muscle.

Scientists are turning chickens into dinosaurs… kinda.

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The challenge with bipedal robots isn’t so much getting them to walk at all (although that’s sometimes a problem) as it is getting them to walk naturally. They tend to either step cautiously or quickly run into trouble. Swiss researchers think they can do better, though: they’re working on COMAN (Compliant Humanoid), a headless robot designed to master walking. The automaton is more graceful through a combination of more flexible, elastic joints and a control algorithm that helps the bot understand its own body.

COMAN is aware of the symmetries in its dynamics and structure, which helps it not only walk with a natural gait but carry objects, navigate uneven surfaces like stairs, and react to surprises. If you push the robot, for instance, it knows exactly where to place its foot so that it doesn’t tip over like some of its peers. And thanks to that added flexibility, it’s more likely to survive that rudeness.

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Bioengineer Keenan Pinto designed an application that helps hydroponic farmers “talk” to their plants.

It’s a bionic leaf that could revolutionize everything we thought we knew about clean energy.

Harvard scientists open the door to an energetic revolution that has allowed them to test successfully a system that converts sunlight into liquid fuel.

Continue reading “Scientists have created a BACTERIUM that inhales CO2 producing Energy” »