Posted on 05/08/2022 5:27:00 AM PDT by BenLurkin
'The team's glove can be worn by a human to supplement finger muscle movement, minimising the amount of muscle activity needed to complete tasks and motions,' MIT explained in a release.
While soft, pneumatic devices have been developed before, these have required a manual design, which can be laborious.
Instead, the MIT researchers developed an autonomous knitting machine called PneuAct, that can knit soft, pneumatic devices unaided.
'A human designer simply specifies the stitch and sensor design patterns in software to program how the actuator will move, and it can then be simulated before printing.'
The textile piece is knitted by PneuAct using conductive yarn, before being fixed to a rubber silicone tube to complete the actuator.
'Using digital machine knitting, which is a very common manufacturing method in today's textile industry, enables "printing" a design in one go, which makes it much more scalable,' explained Yiyue Luo, lead author of the study.
'Soft pneumatic actuators are intrinsically compliant and flexible, and combined with intelligent materials, have become the backbone of many robots and assistive technologies – and rapid fabrication with our design tool can hopefully increase ease and ubiquity.'
The conductive yarn allows for sensing, which means the actuator can 'feel' what it's touching.
For example, when the glove grabs onto an object, the pressure sensor can sense how much force is being applied and adjust accordingly.
While the current glove features tube-shaped actuators, the team now plans to test out different shaped structures.
'Our software tool is fast and easy-to-use and accurately previews users' designs, allowing them to quickly iterate virtually while only needing to fabricate once,' said Andrew Spielberg, an author on the paper.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Partially paralyzed individuals and Bomb Squad teams who defuse explosives are two categories of consumers for this.
LSMFT
Crack Hoe
Lol. I'd buy one just to say I had one...that I kept in the shed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.