Synthetic muscles help AI strong and skillful like in fantasy movies

Researchers are developing a synthetic muscle for artificial intelligence (AI). This type of muscle can expand 15 times and is 3 times stronger than natural muscle, as well as the ability to lift things 1,000 times more than the muscles of a person.

In fantasy movies, robots are flexible machines that are no different from humans. However, in fact, although there have been quite a few things to replace people, robots still move very rigidly and are not as flexible as ours.

In order to help robots become more skillful, for the first time, scientists have created artificial muscles that function similar to human natural muscles, helping robots gain human dexterity and strength. of a machine.

Inspired by human muscles, Dr. Aslan Miriyev, a researcher at Columbia University, developed a synthetic , flexible and flexible muscle . This type of synthetic muscle can push, pull, bend, or even twist when reacting to heat.

Laboratory experiments by Miriyev and colleagues have shown that this synthetic muscle can expand 15 times and is three times stronger than natural muscle, as well as the ability to lift objects weighing 1,000 times compared to human muscles.

Artificial muscles are used to lift the skeleton's arm up 90 degrees.(Photo: Aslan Miriyev / Columbia Engineering).

In addition, this synthetic muscle is easy to make and made from inexpensive, environmentally safe materials and has high biological compatibility. This may be a stepping stone for the development of medical devices that support people with physical disabilities. At the same time, opening up a promising future for flexible robots, can collaborate with people in a flexible and safe way, as well as perform tasks in a sophisticated and precise way.

'Take a look at the most obvious practical application of catching tomato selective robots. If they don't have soft muscle tissue, you'll get a cup of tomato juice instead of a tomato , 'Miriyev said funny.

Most of the most advanced robots today are made of hard materials, such as metal or plastic. Soft robots exist, but they are often limited by compressed air pumps to maintain the shape of the air masses, and must have a voltage level 10 times higher than household electricity to simulate the expansion motion of material.

'Not only is it unrealistic because of high voltage levels, not common in households, but it also has the potential to be dangerous if it is a babysitting or elderly care robot , ' Miriyev said of the types current soft robot.

The material Miriyev and his team is developing does not require a high-pressure pump to function properly.

To create artificial muscles, scientists mixed ethanol - a common ingredient used to make almost everything, from alcoholic drinks to liquid cleaning products - with liquid silicon. After mixing, small bubbles of bubbles are evenly dispersed on the surface and settled down into rubber bags.

By embedding very thin strands into a series of dense rubber bags inside, researchers only need a current with a low voltage to pass through, which can be heated to 78.4 degrees Celsius - heat. boiling of ethanol. Boiling increases the volume of ethanol bubbles causing the muscles to expand.

Miriyev said that in the future, his team will develop a computer-based tracking sensor system to measure the total force used to lift objects and further calculate how much force to use for each specific task.