Conquer Club

Now researchers at MIT, Harvard University and Seoul National University have engineered a soft autonomous robot that moves via peristalsis, crawling across surfaces by contracting segments of its body, much like an earthworm. The robot, made almost entirely of soft materials, is remarkably resilient: Even when stepped upon or bludgeoned with a hammer, the robot is able to inch away, unscathed.

Sangbae Kim, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, says such a soft robot may be useful for navigating rough terrain or squeezing through tight spaces.

The robot is named “Meshworm” for the flexible, meshlike tube that makes up its body. Researchers created “artificial muscle” from wire made of nickel and titanium — a shape-memory alloy that stretches and contracts with heat. They wound the wire around the tube, creating segments along its length, much like the segments of an earthworm. They then applied a small current to the segments of wire, squeezing the mesh tube and propelling the robot forward. The team recently published details of the design in the journal IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

Maugena wrote:THE RISE OF THE PROSTHETICS!
This is amazing!
The potential applications! (No, not your dildo's.)

Haggis_McMutton wrote:I actually read an article about how the porn industry spearheaded many innovations on the internet.
It's a lot of money and a powerfull motivator.

Padilla, Alexandre and Collin J. Fausnaugh. 2010. "The Determinants of Condom Use in the Adult Film Industry." Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Convention, Las Vegas, Nevada, April 11-13, 2010.

Padilla, Alexandre. 2009. "Why Self-Regulate? The Case of the Adult Film Industry (Porno Economicus: A Rational Model of Self-Regulation in the AFI)." Southern Economic Association 79th Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas, November 20-22.

Padilla, Alexandre. 2009. "Entre-porno-ship and Social Norms: Entrepreneurship, Porn Mainstreaming, and
Pop Culture." Association of Private Enterprise Education Annual Convention, Guatemala City, Guatemala, April
5-7.

In 1902, the American company Hamilton Beach patented the first electric vibrator available for retail sale, making the vibrator the fifth domestic appliance to be electrified, after the sewing machine, fan, tea kettle, and toaster, and about a decade before the vacuum cleaner and electric iron.[7]