A flexible but robust robot "grows" like a plant

Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA) have developed a robot that can be extended, "building up" new links. At the same time, its entire chain is flexible enough to bend and rotate, and at the same time tough to withstand heavy loads. The robot can change its length and shape by removing links or adding new ones, the MIT press service reports.

Scientists developed the design of the robot, inspired by how plants grow: nutrients rise up to the tip of the plant, where then a dense structure is gradually formed - for example, a stem or side shoots.

The robot acts in approximately the same way: it consists of a box of drives - a “growth point” - which pulls a free chain from links (“nutrients”) into the box. The gears in the box then block the chain links and again bring the chain out - but already in a locked position. From this chain, as if a sturdy stalk is obtained, which probably holds a heavy "flower" - a box of drives.

Researchers unveiled the “growing robot” this week at the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in Macau, China. They suggest that grips, cameras and other sensors can be installed on the robot’s drive box, which allows it to slip, for example, through the aircraft’s propulsion system and tighten the loosened screw, or reach the shelf and take the product without disturbing the organization of the surrounding equipment.

nanonews.net