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This is a soft, squishy octopus robot with a translucent skin that is super-simple and does almost nothing, but as I was watching it on video, all I could think
by cs702 10y ago
This is a soft, squishy octopus robot with a translucent skin that is super-simple and does almost nothing, but as I was watching it on video, all I could think was that, sooner or later, we will have soft and squishy (and perhaps translucent) robots around us, doing all sorts of things. All of this robot's components are soft.
I don't know if it will take 10 or 50 years, but the soft robots are coming; and they will have supple skin and squishy synthetic organs, not metal surfaces and 'boxy' components.
- pron 10y agoAnd they will take over all jobs requiring soft skills.
- dotancohen 10y agoPleasurebots?
- frandroid 10y agoWill still require some hard parts.
- gene-h 10y agoSoft robotics is a bit overhyped. So the two big things that make soft robots interesting right now are the ability not to hurt people if the controller messes up and the ability to squeeze through cracks. If controllers become sufficiently reliable then we lose the first justification. The second is mostly of interest to the military. There are very good reason to have rigid robots. With higher stiffness one can obtain higher precision and operating speed. The resonant frequency of a robot is proportional to the stiffness of said robot. Higher resonant frequencies imply high operating frequencies and more precision. Not to mention, most animals, especially land animals, are not entirely soft.