{"id":209133,"date":"2025-03-19T09:21:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T14:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/3d-printing-approach-strings-together-dynamic-objects-to-assemble-bionic-robots-sculptures-and-more"},"modified":"2025-03-19T09:21:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T14:21:49","slug":"3d-printing-approach-strings-together-dynamic-objects-to-assemble-bionic-robots-sculptures-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/3d-printing-approach-strings-together-dynamic-objects-to-assemble-bionic-robots-sculptures-and-more","title":{"rendered":"3D printing approach strings together dynamic objects to assemble bionic robots, sculptures and more"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EMMsmuC-xFU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s difficult to build devices that replicate the fluid, precise motion of humans, but that might change if we could pull a few (literal) strings. At least, that\u2019s the idea behind \u201ccable-driven\u201d mechanisms in which running a string through an object generates streamlined movement across an object\u2019s different parts. Take a robotic finger, for example: You could embed a cable through the palm to the fingertip of this object and then pull it to create a curling motion.<\/p>\n<p>While cable-driven mechanisms can create real-time motion to make an object bend, twist, or fold, they can be complicated and time-consuming to assemble by hand. To automate the process, researchers from MIT\u2019s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed an all-in-one 3D printing approach called \u201cXstrings.\u201d Part design tool, part fabrication method, Xstrings can embed all the pieces together and produce a cable-driven device, saving time when assembling bionic robots, creating art installations, or working on dynamic fashion designs.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/groups.csail.mit.edu\/hcie\/files\/research-projects\/xstrings\/xstrings.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">paper<\/a> to be presented at the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2025), the researchers used Xstrings to print a range of colorful and unique objects that included a red walking lizard robot, a purple wall sculpture that can open and close like a peacock\u2019s tail, a white tentacle that curls around items, and a white claw that can ball up into a fist to grab objects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s difficult to build devices that replicate the fluid, precise motion of humans, but that might change if we could pull a few (literal) strings. At least, that\u2019s the idea behind \u201ccable-driven\u201d mechanisms in which running a string through an object generates streamlined movement across an object\u2019s different parts. Take a robotic finger, for example: [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1489,1499,6,1501],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3d-printing","category-cyborgs","category-robotics-ai","category-transhumanism-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}