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Robots who can make decisions, adapt to their environment and learn are about to become a reality.
Researchers at the University of Bristol have demonstrated a new way of integrating computation into flexible robotic materials.
This breakthrough could create new robotic capabilities for environmental monitoring, depollution, drug delivery, prosthetics, portable composites and self-healing composites.
Jonathan Rossiter, professor of robotics, said: "We have taken an important step towards completely soft and autonomous robots, as well as intelligent materials that go beyond the stimulus-response relationships that could enable the intelligent behaviors observed in living organisms .
"Software robots could become even more realistic; able to adapt independently to their environment and to demonstrate the diversity of behaviors observed in the natural world. "
The concept of Soft Matter Computers (SMC) is inspired by biology and is featured in the journal Science Robotics.
It aims to mimic the functioning of the vascular system, where hormones such as adrenaline are released into the blood and disperse throughout the body.
Responses in certain parts of the body are triggered when hormones are detected by a receptor.
Researchers at the Bristol School of Engineering presented a new mechanism for integrating computation into three software robots.
In this study, they describe how a Conductive Fluid Receptor (CFR) is a viable and fundamental building block for a range of next-generation SMCs and robots.
According to scientists, soft matter computers might reflect this process by translating the information contained in the structure of a fluidic band that passes through the soft body of the robot, then is detected by a suitable receiver and then generates an output.
– Press Association
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