When it comes to traditional robots, you might think of some things made of metal and plastic. This lacing up the nuts and bolts robots are made of hard metal.
As robots in areas outside of the laboratory, undertake the task of more and more, this kind of rigid system may bring great safety hidden trouble. For example, if an industrial robot hit people, it is likely to cause the consequences of bruises and even fractures.
Humans have begun to study how to make robots safer or more submissive, from a cold machine into a soft pet.
Used with traditional actuator motor, just as with air muscles or add a spring to motor.
Whegs robot, for example, is between the motor and the wheel leg with a spring, if a robot bump into other things such as a person, can have the effect of shock absorption and buffer spring, so people don't hurt. Roomba vacuuming robot is another example. It also installed the buffer, so when it bumped into the furniture will not damage the furniture.
But now the people began to research in the direction of another, people want to have robot and living tissue together, developed the ability to use living tissue or cell of the robot. These robots can use electrical signals or to activate the light, let the cells and their bones together, allowing robots to make all kinds of action.
The robot can walk around like animals, and the body will be soft. In coexistence with human, they will be more secure than traditional robot, the damage to the surrounding environment will be smaller. Of course, since like animals consists of living organisms or cells, they also need to absorb nutrition to maintain the activity of muscles. From the Angle of the weight, the robots will be more light than traditional robot creatures.
Researchers are biological robot through cultivating living cells, they could produce the material of living cells usually mice or chicken heart muscle or skeletal muscle, cultivating carrier is scaffolds for tissue damage. If the polymer materials for breeding base board, so they developed equipment is biological robot, a mix between natural materials and synthetic materials.
If only the cells on a mold skeleton and not be directed, so their development direction is random. This means that when the researchers using electronic signals to make them move, the contraction of the tissue would be sporadic, it will reduce the execution efficiency of robot.
So, in order to better control the force created by the tissue, the researchers turned to micro forming technology. We may on tissue adherent bone or printed on small lines, they will lead the organization in accordance with a predetermined pattern cell growth.
Control the growth direction of the tissue, the researchers can be applied to control cell tissue substrate size and direction of the force, so as to control the robot's motion.
Inspired by biological robot animal
In addition to a large number of biological hybrid robot, the researchers using pure natural materials to develop some completely made up of living tissue. Some robots under the stimulus of the electric field can crawl or swimming. Some robots development inspiration comes from medical tissue engineering technology, they use a long rectangular arms to drag myself back.
Some researchers for development inspirations from nature, they developed a variety of biomimetic mixed robot. California institute of technology, for example, a group of researchers has developed a similar to the jellyfish biological hybrid robot, they call it the "jellyfish" robot of this kind of equipment installed around the arm in a circle, each arm is a signet with protein material of the micro model, like living the muscles of the jellyfish. When tissue contraction, these arms will bend inward, promote biological hybrid robot to move forward in the liquid rich in nutrients.
Recently, researchers and shows how to control biological hybrid robot. A team of researchers at Harvard University using genetically modified heart cells to make a shape resembling a biomimetic swimming robot manta rays. The heart cells according to the frequency of light make a different response, cells from different position of the corresponding frequency are also different.
When the researchers in a different light to illuminate the robot, the cells to the manta rays will shrink and the body cells from different position of a electronic signals, the contraction force along the robot's body, drive robot to move forward. The researchers have different frequencies of light can be used to control the robot to turn left or turn right. If the strength of the light, the corresponding cell contraction force will be stronger, so that researchers can control the robot moving around.
Although humans have made in the field of biological hybrid robot exciting research achievements, but to make the equipment out of the lab, there are a lot of important work to do. Now the service life of biological hybrid robot are limited, the power of the output is not big, which limits the speed and the ability to complete various tasks. Made of mammals or birds animal cells robot is very critical to the requirement of environmental conditions.
Ambient temperature must, for example, and biological body temperature is close to, but also needs regular cells with rich nutrition liquid nourish. One solution is to mix these biological robot packing up, let the body was not influenced by the destruction of the environment and also has been infiltrating in the nutrient solution.
Another solution is to use a more robust cells for actuator. Case western reserve university, is studying hard deep-sea creatures snail cells to the possibility of making biological hybrid robot actuator. Because live snail in the intertidal zone, thus can withstand temperature and salt concentration in the great changes happened one day.
After the ebb, snail will be trapped in the puddles left behind by the tide. When the sun rises, the environment temperature will be rising, puddles of water evaporated, ambient salt concentration will also be rising. The contrary is in when it rains, the surrounding environment of salt concentration will decline because of the diluted by rain. When the tide comes again, snail can be liberated from the puddles. Therefore, snail formed in the process of evolving very hard tissue so as to adapt to the changeful environment.
We've been able to a blend of the snail living organisms to control the biological action of the robot, it shows that we can make use of the strong resistance of tissue to develop stronger biological robot. This kind of biological robot can move about 1.5 inches long small weight of 1 inch wide.
People in the development of robots in another important problem is the lack of such equipment control system on a board. Now, the engineers by external electric field or light to control them. In order to develop a fully automated biological hybrid robot, we also need to be able to interact directly with the muscle tissues and to provide biological hybrid robot sensor signal input of the controller. One idea is to use the neurons or nerve clusters for group controller.
This is also we can snail excited for laboratory research of another important reasons. The snail was used as a model system for the neurobiological research has decades of history. People already know a lot about the nervous system and muscle of the relationship between the knowledge, the neurons that let us use it as a group controller.
Although the research work in this field is still in the very early stage, but the researchers can already imagine the biological hybrid many application prospect of the robot. For example, we use slug microbial mixed robot developed organization can be used to look for harmful substances or check the pipeline leakage. Theoretically, due to the biological compatibility of such equipment, even if they are torn by wild animals or eaten, also won't like the traditional robot cause environmental damage or environmental pollution.
One day, the robot may be precursors of choose and employ persons is made and used in medical field. Biological robots can be used for directional dosing, removal of embolization or used as controllable stent. This type of stent is tissue substrate rather than the more molecular material, so they can be used to enhance the strength of the vessel wall, avoid forming aneurysms; And the equipment in the future will likely continue to reform and perfect, and be integrated into the body.
Besides small biological hybrid robots are being developed, human studies on tissue engineering technology will also create opportunities for developed large biological robot.
