Communications of the ACM
Air-Powered Computer Memory Helps Soft Robot Control Movements
Engineers at the University of California, Riverside, have unveiled an air-powered computer memory that can be used to control soft robots.
Credit: William Grover
A new air-powered computer memory can be utilized to control soft robots, thanks to engineers at the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside).
The researchers designed an 8-bit pneumatic random-access memory (RAM) chip that substituted microfluidic valves for electronic transistors.
The valves stay sealed against a pressure differential even when detached from an air supply line, generating trapped pressure differentials that serve as memories and maintain the states of a robot's actuators.
Dense valve arrays can conduct sophisticated operations and streamline the bulky, power-intense hardware typical of pneumatic robot controls.
The UC Riverside team incorporated the pneumatic RAM chip into a pair of three-dimensionally-printed rubber hands, and induced a robot to use them to play notes, chords, and an entire song on a piano by varying the mixture of atmospheric pressure and vacuum within the channels on the chip.
From UC Riverside News
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