Communications of the ACM
Squishy Robots Now Have Squishy Computers to Control Them
A team of researchers from Harvard University has come up with a soft replacement for hard electronic components, in the form of a rubber computer that runs on digital logic.
Credit: Harvard University
Researchers at Harvard University have developed a rubber computer that runs on "digital logic," which could serve as a software replacement for hard electronic components.
Robots that have this computer as part of their design will be completely made of soft parts.
The rubber computer works on a series of gates that open and close, transferring information down pathways.
In the Harvard system, the soft computer is made out of silicon tubing and pressurized air. The air moving through the "gates" in the rubber acts similarly to the way electricity does moving through the computer chips in traditional computers.
Currently, the robots have 10-20 logic gates, but the researchers hope to develop robots with up to 1,000 logic gates. Each of those extra gates would make the robot more sophisticated, allowing the system to execute more actions.
From Popular Science
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
No entries found