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NASA has called for a soft robotics technology to be developed to help missions in space – and now they have an answer.
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, a scientist in artificial intelligence, and her team at Yale University have created a robotic skin to wrap everyday objects and turn them into a functional robot.
Video footage shows the skin wrapped around a teddy bear to help him walk.
But it can be used on a number of objects while being directly portable – and that's why it is so useful for the space agency.
Currently, building, programming and sending robots outside the Earth is very expensive.
"The goal is not optimization, but rather the diversity of applications"
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio
And in unpredictable environments such as space, unforeseen problems can occur.
This gives skins a creative advantage over traditional robots that are designed for only a limited number of activities.
Portable skins on astronauts' bodies will also be able to transmit information about life in space.
NASA will be able to analyze breathing and posture to better understand the demands.
YALE
Incredible: technology can be molded into different shapes
(Pic: YALE)
Kramer-Bottiglio hopes that in the future the skins will be able to learn on their own using sensor data.
This will give them the ability to adapt to themselves, especially when wrapped around moldable objects such as clay.
"Given the on-the-fly design of this approach, it is unlikely that a robot created using robotic skins will perform a task optimally," she said.
"However, the goal is not optimization, but rather the diversity of applications."
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