Human or machine?
When we talk about bionic robotics, two different concepts spring to mind. Firstly, prostheses that serve to replace limbs and other body parts. Secondly – and this is what we’d like to discuss here – robotics based on the principles of nature. The motto here almost seems to be: why reinvent the wheel when Mother Nature has already thought of it?
For inspiration, movements of individual animals are used, but also of animals operating in groups, such as swarms of ants. A robot arm based on the trunk of an elephant, a gripper based on the tentacles of a squid, cooperative behaviour of robots, copied from ants, nature has already invented it, so better good copied than bad invented. Festo is a company that regularly manages to get itself in the news with these developments. Just last summer with a fully air-powered robot, a robotic arm, mimicking the functioning of the human body.
Bellows structure
The action of muscles in the human arm is mimicked using a flexible polyamide bellows structure operated by air pressure. The arm is made up of several components in which the air pressure can be controlled separately. Thanks to the bellows, the robotic arm is as flexible as an elephant's trunk. The construction of a trunk is similar to a series of spiral bellows, which do not change volume, but do change shape. When the radial muscles are tightened, the trunk becomes thin and long. Conversely, when the longitudinal muscles are tightened, the trunk becomes short and thick. To flex, the muscles work together.
The trunk-inspired robotic arm consists of three segments, each with three parallel tubes that somewhat resemble hoover hoses. Each individual tube or bellows can lengthen by air pressure. When the pressure subsides, the tube resumes its original shape. As with the elephant trunk, the movement of the arm is an interplay of the movement of the tubes. Because the arm moves organically, the human-machine interaction is not only safer but also much more natural.
Grab
Festo combines the principles of different animals into one application. The trunk arm is fitted with an ink fish gripper. The gripper is made of soft silicone material and is also controlled by air pressure. Under pressure, the gripper bends around the object, which is then gripped with the suction cups on the inside. The bionic arm allows for greater flexibility and cooperation with humans. . The bionic arm responds immediately to touch by receding. This allows a human to cooperate with the arm just fine, without the risk of a hard collision. The octopus grip allows the robotic arm to grasp a wide variety of objects, unlike traditional robots that are usually equipped with not one type of gripper for one particular product
Taking cues from nature has been happening at Festo for some time. Mother Nature has had billions of years to evolve movement principles to perfection, so learning from that seems smart. For example, Festo has already built a robotic kangaroo, a bionic bird of prey, a swarm of robotic butterflies and bionic ants. The ants are the size of a hand and can cooperate like their natural 'conspecifics', enabling them to move objects larger than themselves. Each ant has a stereo camera in its head, with sensors underneath that allow it to gain spatial awareness and grasp objects.
Festo's Bionic Learning Network is researching innovative ways for devices to autonomously perform certain tasks, for example. Another recent sensational project from this department involves FreeMotionHandling, which combines flying and grasping in a special way in one application. Irreverently christened already as a 'fetching drone'. We will probably read more about it.
Watch the film here.
