The United States Arbitrarily Contracted Mobile Intelligent Weaving Became A Bright Spot.

At present, researchers in the cotton fabric that make up robots have mixed linear sensors driven by flexible polymers and memory metal. Memory metal will curl and contract when heating up, so that the cloth will "move". If the invention can be used in the market, it will increase efficiency.

Embedded robots and mobile robots that can move and expand will help future robots to have "tactile" skin. They will become a robot coat to enhance human strength and endurance, lighten the impact of pilots and astronauts while navigating, and may also become a useful assistant for human exploration of space.

In the cotton fabric that made up robots, researchers mixed linear sensors made of flexible polymers and sensors and metal. Memory metal will curl and contract when heating up, so that the cloth will "move".

"At present, most robots" cloth "Only the signals emitted by electronic components can be induced through wires. But we have successfully integrated driving and sensing. "We use sewing technology to sew linear actuators and sensors into cloth, so this technology has the potential to integrate into modern textile industry and scale production," said Cramer, Professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.

Cloth robots are wrapped in foam or balloons. Material Science After the surface, it can drive the material to bend and bend in the required direction, push the material forward like an inchworm, and make compacting and sliding by compressing different parts.

The goal of this research is to develop a series of "soft robots" embedded in the retractable "skin". In the future, "skin" will embed more flexible and more powerful electronic components to adapt to space activities, which will effectively reduce the carrying weight of astronauts and spaceships. The technology can also be used in a portable robot to cover the surface of a variable equipment with a specific "skin" functional cloth and quickly assemble into a specific device suitable for interplanetary exploration.

"We can even design a set of flies. Machine clothing " Cramer said optimistically: "with the aid of the" outer skin "machine, any object can have the potential to become a robot.

The research team led by Cramer has submitted relevant papers to the International Conference on Intelligent Robot Systems held in Chicago, us. During the meeting, they also demonstrated a variable hardness fabric that can be used for medical support and mechanical manufacturing.

The shape memory polymerization fiber makes the fabric have the ability of changing hardness. The polymer will produce phase transformation after heating, make the material softer, and can be used for medical fixation in specific parts. The polymer surface is also covered with shape memory alloy, which can warm up the polymer material after electrified. This technology is expected to make robot technology more efficient and energy saving in the future.

　　 Cramer "Usually, mechanical hinge joints are kept at a specific location, which requires continuous consumption of large amounts of energy to prevent joint relaxation. Now, the new fabric can lock the joints at low energy consumption. At present, Chinese enterprises should learn the spirit of innovation and invention. New achievements should be made in the field of research.