Posted on 04/29/2022 2:10:51 PM PDT by BenLurkin
UC Santa Barbara researchers have developed a simple robot that uses a mechanical advantage known as “work multiplication.” A tiny motor is paired with much larger springs made of carbon fiber strips that act like an archer’s bow. As the motor slowly reels in a strong filament, the bows are compressed and squished while at the same time a series of rubber bands wrapped around the bows are stretched, adding even more power while also increasing the strength of the carbon fiber so that it doesn’t break.
Researchers from the Hawkes Lab at UC Santa Barbara realized that most artificial jumping robots were based on designs from nature where animals like kangaroos, frogs, and grasshoppers have specialized anatomies that exhibit incredible jumping abilities. At the same time, the power these animals can put into a single leap is limited by how much energy can be exerted from a single muscle movement. Unlike superheroes, biological creatures can’t dramatically crouch down, build up energy, and then blast off into the sky. But robots can.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Quick! Send it to Mars to jump for pictures!
My sources tell me this robot self-identifies as a human female. Therefore, it must be allowed to compete in (and dominate) the women’s high-jump.
Tough luck, real ladies.
Be enough of a problem if they allowed robots to compete in the mens olympics.
I seem to recall an article about crickets(?) and how they had bones and muscles that worked as gears and springs that allowed them to jump so far. I wonder if these designers had those in mind?
Shoot - didn’t even read to the end of the excerpt. Of COURSE they looked to nature as an example.
But is it a male, a female or a gender fluid robot? And does it know what locker room to use?
Actually watched the video. They found a hint of the answer in grasshoppers, but mostly it was form-follows-function. Using a motorized windlass to bend rods and stretch rubber bands.
They did say grasshoppers in the 2nd paragraph.
Labeling that a robot is disingenuous.
I for one welcome our new high jumping spider looking robot overlords....WAIT? No!!!!
That was tricky. You almost got me to care. Somebody has solved a problem that nobody asked for. So this thing jumps and lands who knows where. Maybe not on its feet and although it can jump high. Can it really aim. We don’t know. What if the surface is not flat. We don’t know if thats an issue. It still can get stuck. It has to be very light. So it can’t carry much equipment. So the term “robot” is really not as descriptive as “spring”. It’s like a high school engineering test.
The technology will be in the NBA in less than three years, the basket will be raised to 90 feet, and the damn thing will still palm the ball, travel, try to break apart their opponents and we’ll get robot dollars matter.
wy69
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