Scientists create soft robots able to walk out of the printers which made them
Scientists have created soft robots able to walk straight out of the machines which made them.
The flexible, four-legged devices were developed using a new 3D printing system with an innovative method of upside-down printing.
Advertisement
Soft machines – made from compliant materials such as soft plastics – have huge potential for use in areas such as nuclear decommissioning, the biomedical sector and in space, researchers said.
The soft robot is attached to air and then walks off the machine which made it (Maks Gepner/Edinburgh University/PA)
A lack of scalable manufacturing and standardised design causes technical and financial barriers to the use of such devices, the scientists said.
The Edinburgh University team from sought to overcome these challenges by developing a low-cost, desktop 3D printing system for creating soft robots.
Their user-friendly setup can be assembled for under €500 using off-the-shelf parts.
Advertisement
The team demonstrated the capabilities of their new system by creating robots made from a soft plastic material and powered by air pressure.
Once printed, the robots are connected to a compressed air supply before walking out of the machine on which they were made.
The researchers believe this could pave the way for the use of intelligent soft robotic systems with no electronic parts.
Lead engineer on the project, Maks Gepner, said: 'It used to take years to figure out how to print using these materials.
Advertisement
'Using our new platform, anyone can now easily print things which were previously thought to be impossible.
'This is a game-changer for engineers and artists alike.
'Our hope is that this technology will help drive the next wave of research breakthroughs.
'Without the long-standing manufacturing and design bottlenecks holding it back, we believe soft robotics is ready to make a major real-world impact.'
Advertisement
Mr Gepner was supported on the project by fellow PhD student at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Jonah Mack, and lead academic Professor Adam A Stokes, head of the university's Institute for Bioengineering.
World
Thousands of humanoid robots take part in half mar...
Read More
Building and operating their new system – known as the Flex Printer – requires little prior knowledge, with first-time users able to assemble it and begin making robots in just a few days, the team said.
They have made their designs publicly available to broaden access to soft robotic technologies and to help foster collaboration and improvements to the system.
The findings are published in the journal Device. The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Advertisement
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
How Animals Heal Us by Jay Griffiths: Forget dogs, get a THERAPY SKUNK
How Animals Heal Us by Jay Griffiths (Hamish Hamilton £20, 384pp) During the pandemic, writer Jay Griffiths went to visit the charity Medical Detection Dogs. No need to take a Covid test, she was told, because 'the dogs will check you out'. On arrival, a labrador/golden retriever cross trotted round her, had a good sniff and then tossed his head approvingly; she was in the clear. Trained dogs such as these can detect Covid more than 90 per cent of the time. In this book, Griffiths looks at the many ways that animals make our lives better. If you own a pet, you're half as likely to feel lonely as someone without one, and studies show that families who get a pet argue less and play more. Animal therapy is being used to address all sorts of problems, from depression and anxiety to anger, social withdrawal and feelings of helplessness. Cats, dogs and horses are popular therapy animals, but Griffiths has tales of therapy owls, parakeets and even a therapy skunk. 'Despite their bad reputation, skunks are sweet and affectionate,' she writes, though there's no mention of what the skunk smelled like. How much could animals tell us if we could only talk to them? Before the terrible Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, both wild and domestic animals acted strangely. Elephants screamed and ran for higher ground, flamingos abandoned low-lying areas and dogs refused to go outdoors. More than 225,000 people died in the tsunami, but relatively few animals. Dogs, which have a sense of smell that is thought to be 10,000 times more acute than a human's, can be trained to give warnings of an impending medical crisis, like an epileptic fit or a diabetic event. And they seem to have great potential to sniff out undetected diseases. In Italy, German shepherd dogs have been trained to recognise the chemicals linked to prostate cancer in a urine sample. In Florida, a company is using dogs to detect breast cancer, simply by smelling a woman's breath. A British study of whether dogs can spot Parkinson's disease has shown very promising results. Griffiths races from Lucy the chimpanzee, who was successfully taught sign language, to the Polynesian sailors who would set sail with a pig because they were so good at smelling land even before it was visible, and would helpfully point their snout towards terra firma. In Slovenia, there's a school where difficult conversations are held next to the school's beehives, because the bees make everyone calmer. Animals, writes Griffiths, are capable of so much more than we realise, and for many of us their uncomplicated love provides a still point in a spinning world, transforming our lives 'into something larger and fuller than our senses alone may detect'.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Inside the weapons factory putting Britain on a war footing
G rey metal sheds are the future. At least, they are in Sheffield, a proud steelmaking city that wants to be a home for modern industry. Drive along its northeastern reaches, within a stone's throw of the Meadowhall shopping centre, and you'll find box after grey box. There's the ITM Power electrolyser factory. Further down the road, there's a huge slab-like distribution centre, which dispatches PrettyLittleThing dresses to all corners of the country. In between the two, another metal box plays host to Britain's newest gun factory. Last week BAE Systems cut the ribbon on a 94,000 sq ft site bringing manufacturing of M777 howitzers back to the UK. These 4.2 tonne weapons, developed by BAE in the 1990s, fire 155mm shells at a range of 25km. They are now the field gun of choice for US, Canadian, Australian and Indian forces.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Tech mogul's spat with ex-husband spills into courtroom
One of Britain's leading female tech bosses is this weekend embroiled in an extraordinary row with her ex-husband, himself a leading businessman. Sara Murray, 56, the founder of has claimed that a lawsuit brought against her is being bankrolled behind the scenes by Michael Jackson, whom she split from in 2009. Murray sold the comparison website to Admiral in 2003 and received an OBE in 2012. In a bitter legal spat she now claims Jackson, a former chairman of software giant Sage, is funding a lawsuit against her, brought by five former shareholders in her current company Big Technologies. The firm, which provides the Buddi electronic tagging system to the prison service among others, was founded by Murray in 2005 – 13 years later she led a management buyout for £12.3 million. In 2021, its shares were listed on the AIM market in a blockbuster float where it was valued at £577 million. Its value is less than half that today. Five of the early investors are suing the firm, alleging Murray rigged the 2018 buyout vote. They say this led to them being frozen out of the 2021 listing, depriving them of big profits. Now, in a dramatic twist in the case, Big Technologies has alleged the five 'have been funded and/or encouraged and/or assisted' by Jackson. In filings submitted to the High Court, Big Technologies, which is one of two defendants in the case, said it had been informed that Jackson 'brought together a number of stakeholders with a view to orchestrating and offering to fund action against Big Technologies, Buddi and Ms Murray'. They also allege the five and Jackson have 'sought to publicise' the row 'for the purposes of putting pressure' on Murray and the business. In a response filed this month, the five denied they were funded by Jackson and said: 'There is no reasonable basis for the defendants' allegation, and it is without foundation.' The mudslinging will overshadow Big Technologies' annual meeting on Wednesday, which promises to be a tense affair. Murray was sacked as chief executive in March, when the board said she had used offshore firms to extract money from the firm. She denies the allegations and says she did not 'own or control any' of the offshore companies. Jackson said: 'There is no truth in the allegation I have been orchestrating and funding the claim by former shareholders against Big Technologies and Buddi. It has changed the substance of its defence three times constantly abandoning previously strongly held positions.'
