Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Giving bug-like, flying robots a boost”.
[, MUSIC PLAYING ] MIT researchers have developed a new fabrication technique that enables them to produce low-voltage power-dense high-endurance soft actuators for an aerial microrobot.. These artificial muscles vastly improve the robot’s payload and allow it to hover for 20 seconds, which is the longest ever recorded by a robot of its size.. The rectangular microrobot, which weighs less than one-fourth of a penny, has four sets of wings that are each driven by a soft actuator.. These muscle-like actuators are made from layers of elastomer that are sandwiched between two very thin electrodes and then rolled into a squishy cylinder.. When the voltage is applied to the actuator, the electrodes squeeze the elastomer and that mechanical strain is used to flap the wing..
This new fabrication technique produces artificial muscles, with fewer defects which dramatically extends the life-span of its components and increases the robots performance and payload.. The more surface area the actuator has, the less voltage is required. So the researchers built these artificial muscles by alternating between as many ultra-thin layers of elastomer and electrode as they could.. They were able to create an actuator with 20 layers, each of which is ten micrometers. In thickness, .