Yes, Mrdon, and it makes sense to study the movement of different creatures to see what dynamics they are using that could be borrowed for machine motion. In robotics, I find that more interesting than the replication of human attributes.
Rob, studying nature can provide inspiration where a tough engineer problem can be resolved within the Eureka moment by the movement of a cockroach. Cool stuff!!
Rob, engineers are finding inspiration from nature and the future direction, it seems, is to package their basic behaviors in bio-mechanical machines to medically aid humans. Truly fascinating stuff!
Good points, Mrdon. Interesting how bioengineering has entered the robotics world. We could see a world of soft robots that are made of living tissue. Quite amazing.
Ann, it would seem as if keeping the tissue in the nutrient bath would would defeat the purpose of this technology - namely eliminating the space required for more conventional motion control.
Any idea about the life-span, or is the fact that it's being "fed" cause cell division for an indefinite amount of time, thereby reproducing itself? I'm running a little low on my memory of cellular biology.
Thanks, Rob and mrdon. I, too, was surprised to see yet another science fiction idea coming into reality with this subject. Like Scott, I think it's kinda freaky, but also fascinating.
Well I have to admit that this is a little bit freaky, but still pretty cool. Who knows what this means for the future, I suppose that some Cyborg, hybrid robot in 2050 will owe it's movement to these early developments.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
PTC will offer a virtual desktop environment for its Creo product design applications, potentially freeing engineers to run them from remote desktops on a variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
Now that solar and wind harvesting technologies are a thriving market, researchers are seeking other environmentally related energy sources for which they can create harvesting devices.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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