Using the tap of the elephant as a design model - making the arm by biological engineering

Hung likes an arm of . elephant . Yes, German engineers are holding a hand-drawn manuscript from a normal mother and modeling a new arm using biological engineering after an elephant's surgical surgery. This long, gray, soft arm - contains no less than 40,000 muscles - extremely agile.

The elephant uses its trunk to catch objects and use it to drink water. With their taps, this thick-skinned animal can knock down trees and pull heavy objects, and of course can also perform extremely sophisticated manipulations. Researchers at Stuttgart's 'The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA' used elephants to design.

" Its agility and agility give us the idea of ​​a robotic arm using biological engineering ," said Harald Staab, a researcher at the IPA Institute who invented and developed the technique. , ISELLA . "

Robotic arms often bring risks to machine operators - a technical incident that can cause wobbly movements that cannot be controlled. Not like ISELLA. While robot arms usually have only one motor used to control each joint, ISELLA has two, grouped into pairs so that if a control motor fails, the second will responsible for preventing unmanageable movements.

Staab explains: ' Unlike pneumatic or hydraulic systems, our robotic arms have a simple, low-cost muscle, including a small motor with a steering wheel. and a rope. 'Similarly, the ligament attaches muscles to other muscles, the rope connecting the two related active parts together. The steering is attached to the midpoint of the rope. When the swing arm rotates, the rope wraps around it on both sides, forming a double twist. The researchers named this twisted type DOHELIX.

Staab explained: 'The handle is not thicker than the rope, but it is strong enough to not break. Therefore, it has a higher transmission rate than a conventional digital drive motor. '

This goal was achieved by using highly elastic elastomeric materials - the material used to manufacture sailboats and skylights. As a result, DOHELIX is much cheaper and more energy efficient than a gear drive system. Its tensile strength can bear many kinds of intensity greater than its own weight, and DOHELIX concept-based drive systems can be used in applications on all ratios - from microphone-ratio. meters for muscles until container cranes used in ports.

The ISELLA robot arm consists of a total of 10 DOHELIX muscles , providing a flexor and a stretcher for each joint, four on the elbow and six on the upper arm. The robot arm is as flexible as a human arm. Staab recounted: ' We are working at the elbow right now .' Staab estimates: 'Applications that can be applied to the ISELLA method include: medical recovery, for example, in therapies to restore the ability to use damaged limbs, and organs. Fake ability is flexible, low cost. Such devices can be purchased in the market for about two years. '

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