Robots Just Don't Get Any Respect

Have you ever wondered why there are conspiracy tales about black helicopters, and virtually none at all about robots? Humans tell jokes about robots. It is a question of being taken seriously. Everyone knows that helicopters are capable of swooping down just about anywhere on earth and carrying people away. But robots are tied down to a power cord. Robots have no mobility, and are slow and clunky besides.

The University of Texas at Dallas wants to change all that. Last year, UTD won a $750,000 grant to develop artificial muscles that run on chemical fuel, rather than electricity. Now, UTD is announcing the development of working artificial muscles that can run on alcohol and hydrogen. Robots powered by such muscles could carry their own fuel with them, and be mobile like a person.

The new muscles simultaneously function as fuel cells and muscles, according to Baughman, corresponding author of the Science article. A catalyst-containing carbon nanotube electrode is used in one described muscle type as a fuel cell electrode to convert chemical energy to electrical energy, as a supercapacitor electrode to store this electrical energy and as a muscle electrode to transform this electrical energy to mechanical energy. Fuel-powered charge injection in a carbon nanotube electrode produces the dimensional changes needed for actuation due to a combination of quantum mechanical and electrostatic effects present on the nanoscale, Baughman said.

In another of the described artificial muscles – currently the most powerful type – the chemical energy in the fuel is converted to heat by a catalytic reaction of a mixture of fuel and oxygen in the air. The resulting temperature increase in this “shorted fuel-cell muscle” causes contraction of a shape memory metal muscle wire that supports this catalyst. Subsequent cooling completes the work cycle by causing expansion of the muscle.

“The shorted fuel cell muscles are especially easy to deploy in robotic devices, since they comprise commercially available shape memory wires that are coated with a nanoparticle catalyst. The major challenges have been in attaching the catalyst to the shape memory wire to provide long muscle lifetimes, and in controlling muscle actuation rate and stroke,” said Baughman. “Students and scientists of all ages will be working on optimizing and deploying our artificial muscles, from high school students in our NanoExplorer program to retired technologists in our NanoInventor program.”

Read the full report here.

These artificial muscles are linear actuators, like animal muscle. Linear actuators better enable the type of motion that humans are capable of, including swimming, climbing, running, jumping, lifting, and carrying. It is easy to imagine robo-cops, robo-firefighters, robo-soldiers, robo-miners, and robo-construction workers, all built with this type of artificial muscle. Of course, having the ability to carry its own fuel gives this type of robot staying power, and respect.

Here is a good source of information about artificial muscles, from the University of New Mexico. Registration to view the videos is free, and the research papers are available without registration.

Here is a website for a commercial enterprise developing artificial muscles, a spinoff of SRI International.

This is a NASA website discussing some fascinating applications of artificial muscle. It contains videos, a video lecture, and articles, images, and links for artificial muscle information.

The UTD muscle that runs on chemical fuel is the type of breakthrough needed to create mobile robots. If a robot can run on alcohol, why not sugar, protein, or fat? The convergence of robotics, artificial intelligence, and advanced nano-chemo-energetics promises to bring about robots with the potential to be truly fearsome.

We humans need to become smarter, or robots will be telling human jokes soon.

Update: Be sure to check out Chris Chatham's post on military robots at Develintel Blog. If that does not make you a bit uneasy, check your body temperature to see if it is above ambient level.