See you soon! You can make a robot by picking up a few branches... It can walk and grasp, and it can also be used in medical rehabilitation in the future.

If you were asked to make a robot using the things you have on hand, what would you think of?

Can branches work? No problem at all.

A doctorate guy from Beautiful Country randomly picked up a few branches and made a robot that can walk and grasp. Maybe this is Ke(shou) ) Let’s learn the highest realm of (yi) family (ren).

This robot is called StickBot as its name suggests. It looks really rough. Who would have thought that it can control movement through an APP!

In addition to branches, it consists of circuits, actuators, microcontrollers and motor drivers. There are two modes: In "crawl mode", branches It’s the robot’s legs, which can rotate and crawl forward:

In the “grasp mode”, the branches become With the arm attached, the rocker is connected to the controller plate on one side to form a hinged joint, while moving through its free end to firmly grip the cup, it automatically releases the arm when it senses someone is about to remove the cup. .

The designer of this robot is Devin Carroll, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania. According to him, “This is a A modular robot where you can put a bunch of branches into various structures with different configurations."

This person The little brother’s whimsical ideas don’t stop there. In addition to the branch robot, he also made a robot IceBot made entirely of ice, which also won the Guinness World Record in 2020.

With a rectangular body and two large wheels, IceBot looks like a cross between a monster truck and a pushcart.

Why make such a robot?

The design of most robots is a very tedious process. Before starting, the designer must know what the robot can do and how to do it; after that, the designer can Start building a prototype of the robot, identify any problems with the design, come up with some unique improvements for better performance, and repeat the process before you run out of time and money.

The branch robot is completely different. It is not a static, single invention, but an idea, a flexible one that can be reconfigured in many ways. system.

As a modular robot, StickBot’s components can be added, adjusted and discarded as needed. It has strong reusability and flexibility while keeping very low the cost of.

For a simple model, the total build cost of StickBot is less than $100, with some components such as the actuator and motor drives) are an integral part of the robot's functionality.

#While other components can be replaced depending on the task being performed and the materials on hand. For example, Carroll is exploring using hot glue and tape to replace the ropes that bind the robot.

Carroll’s mentor, Mark Yim, has worked at the University of Pennsylvania for 17 years and is currently the director of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory. "The high versatility of modular robots offers great potential for the development of this technology, one iteration of which is self-configuring robots," Yim said.

“Humans are very good at adapting to different environments. When it’s cold, you put on your coat. Robots can do that too. If robots can change their shape and do different things... it gives you more possibilities. Sex."

Instant creation, and can also be applied to medical rehabilitation

One future application of StickBot is the global Rehabilitation settings in healthcare, either as prosthetics or for rehabilitation.

The designers asked: Are those expensive high-end medical procedures affordable for patients in every situation? Once a piece of high-tech equipment breaks, how difficult will it be to repair it?

Michelle J. Johnson, associate professor of rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, agreed, saying the StickBot system could also potentially be used as a social, therapeutic, prosthetic or assistive robot. , or used to support immediate functional needs, help patients perform physical therapy exercises, etc.

"We did two things," designer Carroll said: "First, we reduced the material cost of the robot; second, we could Reduce complexity with fewer operational features. Having the flexibility to do more means you can help more people. If you can make it cheap, all the better."

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