/ News
MIT developing a robotic "Swiss Army knife" that changes shape to suit the job
An MIT team is developing a robot that has the potential to become possibly the most versatile machine ever. Referred to by the team as the "robotic equivalent of a Swiss Army knife,” the milli-motein robot is made up of a chain of tiny modules each containing a new type of motor that can be used to form the chain into various shapes. This shape-changing capability could lead to the creation of robots that dynamically change their form to suit the task at hand.
To call the milli-motein a “Swiss Army knife” is a bit of a misnomer. The iconic bit of cutlery gets its versatility by carrying all sorts of tools folded away inside itself. However, the protein-inspired milli-motein robot does its job by turning itself into the needed tool. In this respect, its less like a pocket knife and more like the shape-shifting Shoggoths from H.P. Lovecraft’s stories. Though that sounds disturbing, it gives the milli-motein the potential for one day becoming a nearly universal machine.
Diagram of the magnet assembly of the MIT milli-motein
The MIT team of Neil Gershenfeld, head of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, visiting scientist Ara Knaian and postdoctoral associate Kenneth Cheung call this idea “programmable matter.” Ideally, what the team would like to achieve is a device that can change to become whatever is required at the time. If you need a hammer, it’s a hammer. If you need a spanner, it’s a spanner.
This device would be made up of tiny chains of mechanical modules strung together. That may sound a lot like other wormlike robots, but its purpose is more ambitious than just wiggling through cracks. With a paper published last year by another MIT team mathematically proving it is theoretically possible to reproduce any 3D shape by folding a sufficiently long string, such a chain modeled on protein molecules could be folded into any 3D shape.
The MIT milli-motein is based on a protein molecule seen here in simulation
As a first step in developing programmable matter, the MIT team produced the milli-motein robot. Its name stands for MILLImeter MOtor proTEIN and is currently the world’s smallest chain robot. Created under a DARPA grant at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, each of its modules is smaller than a cubic centimeter and is built around an entirely new kind of motor.
The milli-motein’s modules are too small to use conventional gears and motors, so in order to keep the design simple and the costs down, the team came up with a motor that is strong, yet maintains its position when turned off.
They call it an electropermanent motor and its principle is similar to that of scrapyard electromagnets used to lift cars. Flying in the face of intuition, some types of these electromagnets are actually turned off while they’re lifting scrap iron. That’s because they’re permanent magnets paired with a weaker electromagnet. When the electromagnet is switched on, it cancels the stronger permanent magnet’s field and the scrap drops.
In the milli-motein, coils switch off the permanent magnets that make up the rotor’s arms in sequence and cause it to turn. When the power is off, the motor locks. This means that the module is very energy-efficient, cheap, simple and needs no gears. It also makes the motor relatively powerful for its size. The motors can currently only lift one other segment in the robot’s chain, but the team hopes the use of lighter materials will enable it to lift two or three.
When the milli-motein modules are linked in a chain, each module gets an instruction to turn left, right or straight. It works like DNA code in that, like a DNA pair, it carries out an independent function without any reference to the task as a whole. However, the team learned that using the modules in chains rather than as discrete units allowed for much more efficient control since commands can be passed down the line so that the individual “dumb” modules operate in harmony.
The final size of later versions of the milli-motein robot will depend on the size of the task and chains can range from the size of proteins to that of a human being. Even if the robot concept goes nowhere, the new motor has already sparked interest in a number of industries.
The MIT video below explains the mechanics of the milli-motein robot.
Source: MIT
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/swiss-army-robot-mit/25251/
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru