Soft Robot Moves by Mimicking Plants

A tough but flexible bot unfurls like a plant using a pressurized plastic tube to inch through rugged environments.
Subscribe to our channel: / sciamerican
Transcript:
A new soft robot grows like a tendril.
It unfurls from the inside to creep forward, stretching up to 72 meters away from its source.
The unique design reduces friction, letting the bot navigate complex environments without snagging.
It can handle everything from fly paper, to glue, to a bed of nails.
The bot can navigate like a plant toward the light.
It uses a camera threaded through the tube to calculate its course while small chambers inflate to steer.
Robots like this could be used in disasters.
It’s flexible enough to wiggle through tiny gaps, and light enough to “walk” on water. But strong enough to lift heavy objects,
and apply the force to turn a valve.

[@morlanius]

The mining industry would LOVE this! You could send an emergency airline after a partial collapse or hard to access area, just tell it where to end up and add air. Great.

[@bhaswatithakuria6828]

Incredible

[@DoughBoy45]

I think I have a revolutionary idea for quick, non human, non invasive prostate exams.

[@DelfaTime]

sounds good

[@WaTahBasTard]

So now it just need to able to do something once it is extended

[@asbestosfish_]

*WE DID IT! WE TOOK ALL THE FIRST AWKWARD, WOBBLING STEPS TO ASCENSION!*

[@Tyminator502]

Windows. 98. Pipes. Screensaver.

[@betterwayusa5092]

Yup......

[@aathi1428]

Can we get what type of materialis this?

[@dejayrezme8617]

Haha amazing design! Why does the rolled up tube stay in it's shape after the head apparently folds it in a certain curvature? Why doesn't it pop back to a straight shape? Or does it do that if it's not constrained by some obstacles?

[@JM-oy8fk]

This robot is unstoppable

[@TheYavy]

This robot is sansational. One of the best i ve seen

[@decodedbunny101]

I’ve thought about this when I was a kid, its not moving. It’s growing

[@anonymousfairydrones5626]

That random creep in the comments: *pops into existence* 👴🏻

[@Zangdoodle]

Remote controlled ballon. Its more like a mollusk than a plant

[@jfp589]

thats not a robot thats a person filling a tube with air

[@sono6749]

Inflation is how travels forwards but it changes direction in a similar way to endoscopy machines.

[@sarahlami6276]

Who's company/lab created it ? Does someone has the name of the robot ?

[@sarahlami6276]

How can it come back to the way it was ?

[@AVdREAMtEAM]

촉수잖아

[@SimonSozzi7258]

Wow!

[@BajaSurf]

WE ARE DOOM!

[@ming7229]

整條雲梯

[@ItsJJOLO]

Experiment a plant that has an infinite growing stem. C:

[@mobeusamphisbaena]

Efficient proboscis. Future of endoscopy and laparoscopic surgery... quite a lot remains to be acomplished. My feed is all blocked due to lack of stimulus/reward. 1. More degrees of freedom 2. Memory aginst deformation (of the already distended part) Why surgeons deserve special wearable (lack of a better word) organs. In case of elastic material, strength will be directly proportional to diameter of cavity and elongation will be inversely proportional. (along with decrease of wall thickness of tunnel) "Continuous melting and moulding ; the structural rigidity implants itself simultaneously {metallic rings/filaments} , this implant holds the directional memory; remote contol of magnetic polarity/ electric charge bias of the structural implants " The obstacle/limitation is the program/headgear with sensors , to manoeuvre memory of the structural implants. There exists applications in adult pleasure toys.. Micro fabrication will result in flagellated medical needles rendered flexible immediately after permeating dermis.. Applications Dedicated drug delivery / extraction of haematomas.. et cetera...

[@troooooper100]

omg i dont get how it works

[@harshitkasera6037]

😕😮🙄😲

[@davidonfim2381]

Super cool robot, but I cannot comprehend why people think mixing text with videos is a good idea. As any psychologist/neuroscientist will tell you, humans are incapable of both reading and watching a video simultaneously, not just because our foveas are too small to capture the entire scene at once, but also because our cognitive capacities don't allow us to focus on multiple things simultaneously. One has to repeatedly switch from reading to watching. This leads people to either miss some of the text or some of the video, and creates an unpleasant experience for the viewer. That is why videos are generally narrated, not captioned- because it IS possible to watch and listen at the same time. You NEVER see these kinds of text with video things on TV nor in popular youtube channels. That isn't an oversight. It's not random. There's a very good reason for it. PLEASE stop making these kinds of videos. Either embed videos of the robot in a news article, or narrate the video. Do NOT make videos where the information is provided only in text form!

[@vertigoz]

David Enrique you have to be used to reading subtitles to completelly dismiss your post as nothing more then a rant

[@NamaDoodoo]

David Enrique fuck off

[@rodibremo]

Sorry, but I can very well read a short text and watch a video at the same time. I am not psychologist/neuroscientist: that may be the reason, No?

[@Sketchblopp]

It helps if you are watching it on your phone in the train or another crowded place and don't want to be the annoyance of the day for all the people around you by turning on the sound. (Sure, there are headphones, but the ones you wear outside sometimes don't block every noise of a vehicle or talking people, so you still won't understand a thing.)

[@KrissFliss]

Wait, do you guys dub every movie or series that are non english, instead of using subtitles?