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Scientists at Tufts University have received a $3.3 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a prototype of a chemical robots (Chembots). According to the original proposal from DARPA, in just 2 years a prototype approximately the size of a softball - i.e. 10cm across - must achieve all this:
- travel a distance of 5 meters at a speed of 0.25 meters/minute;
- achieve a 10-fold reduction in its largest dimension; and
- squeeze through a 1 cm opening of arbitrary geometry and reconstitute its original size and shape, in 15 seconds.
- and ultimately biodegrade.
The advantages of using unmanned devices to conduct dangerous or difficult operations are clear, and the U.S. has invested in such devices for years. But today’s rigid robots, constructed mostly of hard materials, are unable to navigate complex environments with openings of arbitrary size and shape. They are stymied by, say, a building whose only access points may be a crack under a door or a conduit for an electrical cable.
The Tufts team will design the “chembots” to be capable of performing feats no current machine can accomplish, according to Professor of Biology Barry Trimmer, the Henry Bromfield Pearson Professor of Natural Sciences and co-principal investigator on the project. Among these tasks will be the ability to enter confined or complex spaces; follow cables, ropes or wires; and climb trees or other branched structures.
It is an entirely new way of looking at robots and could someday yield great technological advantage for our armed forces. (Dr. Mitchell Zakin, Ph.D., DARPA program manager for the ChemBots program)
The Tufts chembots will copy some of the performance capability of Manduca, including its flexibility, climbing ability and scalability - from hatching to the end of its larval stage, the caterpillar grows 10,000 fold in mass using the same number of muscles and motor neurons.
- travel a distance of 5 meters at a speed of 0.25 meters/minute;
- achieve a 10-fold reduction in its largest dimension; and
- squeeze through a 1 cm opening of arbitrary geometry and reconstitute its original size and shape, in 15 seconds.
- and ultimately biodegrade.
The advantages of using unmanned devices to conduct dangerous or difficult operations are clear, and the U.S. has invested in such devices for years. But today’s rigid robots, constructed mostly of hard materials, are unable to navigate complex environments with openings of arbitrary size and shape. They are stymied by, say, a building whose only access points may be a crack under a door or a conduit for an electrical cable.
The Tufts team will design the “chembots” to be capable of performing feats no current machine can accomplish, according to Professor of Biology Barry Trimmer, the Henry Bromfield Pearson Professor of Natural Sciences and co-principal investigator on the project. Among these tasks will be the ability to enter confined or complex spaces; follow cables, ropes or wires; and climb trees or other branched structures.
It is an entirely new way of looking at robots and could someday yield great technological advantage for our armed forces. (Dr. Mitchell Zakin, Ph.D., DARPA program manager for the ChemBots program)
The Tufts chembots will copy some of the performance capability of Manduca, including its flexibility, climbing ability and scalability - from hatching to the end of its larval stage, the caterpillar grows 10,000 fold in mass using the same number of muscles and motor neurons.
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