Tag Archives: soft

All hail the Wireless Power Bank!

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Well, this is exactly what the smartphone industry needs. Better chargers! While we’ve completely gone to trash on battery advancement (we’re literally carrying around dynamite in our pockets), there’s a lot we can do in the charger department. We never really embraced wireless charging, but we’ve completely adopted the power-bank into our daily lives. How about a power bank that just charges wirelessly? Not only would that kill the Android vs. iOS argument, it would also mean you can charge your phone with incredible ease. The Huggl’s design definitely builds a clear image of where charger technology should be headed. It comes in a power bank avatar that allows you to dock your phone into its soft cushion-y upper component. Once your phone is nestled into the pillow, it begins charging. You can place multiple phones stacked one behind another and the Huggl will charge all of them… without cables! Why are we devoting our lives to self-lacing sneakers when we can easily make THIS?!

Designer: Gianni Teruzzi

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Octobot Is a Soft and Squirmy Robot

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A team of researchers at Harvard have developed Octobot, what they claim is the first autonomous soft robot with no rigid components. That means it’s all soft and squishy (and creepy.) The octopus-shaped robot has a silicone body and uses a 50% hydrogen peroxide fuel that flows through a microfluidic circuit where it reacts with platinum. That is how it does its little dance.

octobot_robot_1zoom in

So what else does it do? Nothing really. It’s pretty useless. It is just an example of what could be possible in the future, using soft materials and techniques like 3D printing.

I wonder when they are going to make a giant Kraken that dances. Science likes to do stuff like that. Then it can go out of control and kill us all.

[via Nature via Laughing Squid]

Soft-bodied Robot Snakes Are the Future of Robo-snakes

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We have seen plenty of robot snakes before. Sometimes they climb trees, or slither in the grass, maybe take a swim in the pool. I’m always on the lookout for them, since I know they will strangle me if they catch me off guard. But now things are just getting crazy. Soft snakes are coming! This shiz just got real!

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This prototype is powered by air and can attain amazing speeds up to 19 millimeters per second. It’s muscles are tiny tubes made from soft polymers that line the snake’s four segments. The on-board computer in the tail controls a compressor that changes air pressure in the elastomer tubes, mimicking a snake’s movement.

So when air passes through the body, it creates a wave. Valves at the joints open and close to make it undulate. Yeah, stuff just got wayyyy more creepy. I look forward to it’s soft skin around my neck as it squeezes. The upside is that the softer the skin, the easier it is to slice with a knife. How do you like that soft snake?

Haha. Soft snake. Sounds like you’re just pushing rope. Bring it on.

[via Botropolis]

Harvard soft robot explodes into action, jumps 30 times its height (video)

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Harvard soft robot explodes into action, jumps 30 times its height video

Harvard University has pushed its soft robot concept in strange directions, but an exploding robot? That takes the cake. A new three-legged, silicone-based variant of the robot is filled with methane and oxygen that, when jolted with electricity, explode and trigger violent pressure that pushes the limbs off the ground. As you'd imagine, the results weren't exactly timid during testing -- the example robot jumped over 30 times its body height, and it would have jumped higher if not for additional tubing holding it down in the lab. The power easily eclipses that of pure air, and could be vital to rescue robots or other public safety machines that could very literally leap to someone's aid. Don't anticipate exploding automatons on the streets anytime soon. We'll just be glad that, if they do arrive, they'll be trying to help us rather than kill us.

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Via: Gizmag, New Scientist

Source: Wiley Online Library