Communications of the ACM
RoboBee Powered by Soft Muscles
A new resilient RoboBee that is powered by soft artificial muscles can experience collisions without being damaged.
Credit: The_Harvard MicroRobotics Lab/Harvard SEAS
Researchers at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed a resilient RoboBee powered by soft artificial muscles that can experience collisions without being damaged.
The researchers built upon electrically driven soft actuators, which are made using dielectric elastomers—soft materials with good insulating properties that deform when an electric field is applied.
Said SEAS researcher Elizabeth Farrel Helbling, the robot’s ability to absorb impact without damage “would come in handy in potential applications such as flying through rubble for search and rescue missions.”
From Harvard University John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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