Project to combine biology and engineering to create soft-bodied robots
12 February 2007
Researchers at Tufts University in the USA have launched a
multidisciplinary initiative focused on the science and engineering of a new
class of robots that are completely soft-bodied. These devices will make
possible advances in such far flung arenas as medicine and space
exploration.
The aim is to overcome the limitations of the hard-bodies of the current
generation of robots, which have stiff construction and lack of flexibility.
Barry Trimmer, professor of biology, and David Kaplan, professor of
biomedical engineering, are co-directors of the Biomimetic Technologies for
Soft-bodied Robots project, which represents a consortium of seven Tufts
faculty members from five departments in the School of Engineering and the
School of Arts and Sciences. The project has just been awarded a grant of
$730,000 from the WM Keck Foundation.
The project will bring together biology, bioengineering and micro/nano
fabrication. “Our overall goal is to develop systems and devices
—soft-bodied robots — based on biological materials and on the adaptive
mechanisms found in living cells, tissues and whole organisms,” professor
Kaplan explains. These devices, he notes, will have direct applications in
robotics, such as manufacturing, emergency search and retrieval, and repair
and maintenance of equipment in space; in medical diagnosis and treatment,
including endoscopy, remote surgery, and prostheses design; and in novel
electronics such as soft circuits and power supplies.
“A major characteristic that distinguishes man-made structures from
biological ones is the preponderance of stiff materials,” explains professor
Trimmer. “In contrast, living systems may contain stiff materials such as
bone and cuticle but their fundamental building blocks are soft and elastic.
This distinction between biological and man-made objects is so pervasive
that our evaluation of artificial or living structures is often made on the
basis of the materials alone. Many machines incorporate flexible materials
at their joints and can be tremendously fast, strong and powerful, but there
is no current technology that can match the performance of an animal moving
through natural terrain.”
First “molecules to robots” effort
The Tufts team represents the first major effort to design a truly
soft-bodied locomoting robot with the workspace capabilities similar to
those of a living animal. While other groups around the world are applying
biomimetic approaches to engineering design, most focus on narrow areas
within this field.
"This represents a wonderfully rich and novel collaboration that takes a
comprehensive 'molecules to robots' approach to the use of soft materials,"
notes Linda M. Abriola, dean of the Tufts School of Engineering.
Work will focus on four primary areas:
- control systems for soft-bodied robots,
- biomimetic and bionic materials,
- robot design and construction, and development and
- application of research-based platform technologies.
Caterpillars and silkworms
The Keck grant will provide the team with specialized equipment for use
with soft materials and biomechanics experiments, according to Trimmer,
whose work with caterpillars provides insights on how to build the world’s
first soft-bodied robot.(1) Trimmer, a
neurobiologist, has been studying the nervous system and biology since 1990
through grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National
Science Foundation. His goal has been to better understand how the creatures
can control their fluid movements using a simple brain and how they can move
so flexibly without any joints. He hopes to adapt his caterpillar research
to this new project using the expertise of Tufts engineers.
Kaplan, whose laboratory focuses on biopolymer engineering
(2), has already uncovered the secret of how
spiders and silkworms are able to spin webs and cocoons made of incredibly
strong yet flexible fibres. More recently, his team applied genetic
engineering and nanotechnology to create a “fusion protein” that for the
first time combined the toughness of spider silk with the intricate
structure of silica. Kaplan notes that there has been tremendous progress in
the development and use of soft materials in devices ranging from keyboards
to toys. “However, it is very hard to make soft devices that move around and
can be precisely controlled,” he says. “This is the fundamental reason why
robots currently move like robots instead of lifelike animals.”
The new robots developed at Tufts will be continuously deformable and
capable of collapsing and crumpling into small volumes. They will have
capabilities that are not currently available in single machines including
climbing textured surfaces and irregular objects, crawling along ropes and
wires, or burrowing into complex confined spaces. “Soft-bodied robots could
make many dangerous surgeries much safer and less painful,” Trimmer adds.
“They could also be used by NASA to repair space stations by reaching places
that astronauts can’t, perform more complicated tasks in industry that
require flexibility of movement, help in hazardous environments like nuclear
reactors and landmine detection, and squeeze more efficiently into tight
spaces.”
In addition to Trimmer and Kaplan, Assistant Professors Robert White, in
mechanical engineering, and Sameer Sonkusale, in electrical and computer
engineering, will supervise projects in the Tufts Microfabrication
Laboratory. Associate Professor Luis Dorfmann, in civil and environmental
engineering, and Visiting Assistant Professor Gary Leisk, in mechanical
engineering, will supervise the material testing and modeling parts of the
project, and Assistant Professor Valencia Joyner, in electrical and computer
engineering and Sonkusale will direct the design and production of sensors
and soft material integrated circuits.
Multi-disciplinary space
The work will take place in a recently expanded multi-disciplinary Tufts
facility at 200 Boston Avenue, Medford. Known as the Advanced Technologies
Laboratory (ATL), the 23,000-square-foot space includes a tissue engineering
facility, a biomimetic devices laboratory, a soft materials characterization
laboratory, and a micro/nano fabrication laboratory with 1,500 square feet
of “Class 1000” clean room space.
“This facility provides a cross-disciplinary environment for faculty and
students to investigate complex systems problems related to the biological
properties of animals, tissues and cells, and their practical use in
biomimetic devices,” says Abriola. “It has the potential to develop a new
area of science and engineering with an immense impact on human and
environmental health as well as in establishing a new mode of conducting
academic research across departmental boundaries. Tufts will recruit and
train students from both science and engineering to work together in these
cross-disciplinary areas.”
The Keck Foundation Grant is the second major grant that Tufts’ Advanced
Technologies Laboratory has received in the last six months. The trustees of
the Elizabeth A. Lufkin - Richard H. Lufkin Memorial Fund awarded the
university a $278,000 grant to support the establishment of a
microfabrication teaching facility. The microelectronics and microsensors
industry continues to grow worldwide, and this grant brings microfabrication
equipment to Tufts students, who will gain hands-on manufacturing experience
in emerging techniques with cutting-edge research and industrial
applications.
Tufts University is located on three Massachusetts campuses in Boston,
Medford/Somerville, and Grafton, and in Talloires, France.
Further information Professor Trimmer's work on caterpillar
locomotion
1.
http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/faculty/trimmer/locomotion.html Professor
Kaplan's work on biopolymer engineering
2.
http://ase.tufts.edu/biomedical/faculty-staff/kaplan.asp
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