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In Wallace and Gromit's short film The Wrong Trousers, the sleeping Wallace finds himself stuck in a pair of robotic pants that make him walk and break into a bank. On a totally independent note, researchers at Yale University have come up with "robotic skins" that you can place around inanimate objects and move them or grab other things.
These skins are made from elastic sheets incorporating sensors and actuators that can be slid on the legs of a stuffed animal, for example, and then used to pass this animal on a table. Remove the skin and reconfigure it into a shirt and you can create an active portable device.
Each improvised robot can perform a different task depending on the properties of the object (it is useful that it is flexible,
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, who developed the skins, explained that although robots are usually designed with a particular purpose, "robotic skins … allow users to create skins." This means that they can be used in settings that have not even been taken into account when designing them. "
The technology was developed in partnership with NASA, the fact that the material is malleable means that it can be used in various situations. If you're stuck in the immensity of space, where the environment is unpredictable, giving astronauts the greatest number of options is the best way to guarantee the exploration and development the survival.
Existing prototypes built by the researchers include foam cylinders that move like a worm, a portable device to correct posture, and a gripper-like hand.
The results of the team's work were published September 19 in Science Robotics, and Kramer-Bottiglio said the next step in his lab was to streamline devices and use 3D printing to make the components.
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