Robots of the future could jump like grasshoppers thanks to an elastic material discovered by researchers at the University of Colorado. It is a new type of liquid crystal elastomer, capable of storing large quantities of energy and releasing it in a powerful and precise jump.
“Jumping” robots could pave the way for new applications in the industrial, medical and domestic fields, overcoming the limits of human anatomy and moving in a much more agile and efficient way.
A high jump. Indeed: forward.
The elastomer developed by the University of Colorado Boulder research team is capable of “jumping” to a height of up to 200 times its thickness. Performance far superior to that of a grasshopper.
The material is made of three layers of elastomer and liquid crystals, which contract enormously when the material is heated. This contraction causes the formation of a sort of "cone" at the base of the robot, which stores the energy of the jump. When the cone suddenly reverses, it causes the robot to “jump” and it is thrown upwards at great speed.
The first author of the study presented in Science Advances (I link it here) is called Taylor Hebner. She was examining elastomers and their ability to change shape, for other purposes, when they saw them literally “take off” from a heated plate.
Possible applications: robots that can jump
the new material could have many practical applications in the field of mobile robots and medical devices. For example, robots could jump to overcome obstacles and navigate difficult terrain, or to reach otherwise inaccessible places.
In the medical field, the material could be used to create miniaturized mobile devices capable of reaching areas inside the human body that are difficult to reach by other means.
It's time to jump to conclusions
Researchers are already working on improving the design of the material and making it even more versatile. For example, they're trying to find ways to blast the material by also cooling it rather than heating it, so we can control the robot's motion even more precisely.
The refinements of this elastic material could represent a truly remarkable breakthrough in the field of robotics. What to say? I can't wait to jump into the next chapter of this quest.
