Imagine it: no motors to wear out, no cables to snap, no rods to break: just muscle-like fibers that contract in response to an electric current. It's nothing short of a revolution in robotics. No doubt, the industry will rely heavily on this technology in the years ahead. There's even hope that such fibers might somehow be used in human patients to aid those who have, for one reason or another, lost the use of their limbs.
In a creepy sort of way, these new artificial muscles are now about to be put to the test in an arm wrestling contest with high school students. As part of an upcoming contest hosted by NASA, high school students will go hand-to-hand with an artificial forearm powered by these electroactive polymers. Assuming the robotic arm doesn't rip the limbs off these students (Terminator, anyone?), this P.R. event should serve up some much-needed public interest in robotics.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is holding an arm-wrestling contest
in San Diego in March 2005, and Albuquerque scientist and inventor
Mohsen Shahinpoor wants to win.
He's entering a robotic arm that will be powered by artificial muscles
he has invented.
NASA is sponsoring the contest that will pit robotic arms fitted with
artificial muscles against a human being, probably a teenager.
They mimic human muscle movements, and in time, might be used to
replace damaged muscles in the human body.
They also stand a good chance of revolutionizing the field of
robotics.
NASA, for instance, is hoping to build a landing rover with legs
fitted with artificial muscles.