A Soft Body, but the Mind of a Robot
02 January 2012
An elastomeric gripper robot
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about soft-bodied robots -- robots that can move more easily than those made of metal. We also tell about efforts to control the disease malaria. And we tell about how being president of the United States can be good for your health.
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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: When many of us think of robots, we picture large, metal objects in the shape of humans, having difficulty moving around. But robots have come a long way. A team at Harvard University in Massachusetts recently developed a soft-bodied robot. The team based the design of its robot on sea creatures without hard shells or skeletons.
STEVE EMBER: The robotic device was made with soft materials called elastomers. It is about thirteen centimeters long and has four legs that can move separately. The movements are controlled by compressed air and can be operated from a computer.
George Whitesides led the Harvard researchers. The United States Department of Defense paid for the project.
The robot itself took two months to develop. In tests, researchers have guided the robot under a plate of glass less than three centimeters high. The researchers say their invention can move at a speed of about thirteen meters an hour.
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