[extropy-chat] TransMuscles

[Ian Goddard]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-035

Artificial Muscles Get a Grip on Human Hand

February 28, 2005 

Six years ago a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., issued a unique
challenge: build a robotic arm using artificial
muscles that could arm wrestle a human. The results of
that challenge will be determined next week, when
three such robotic arms will "step into the ring" to
compete against a 17- year-old high school student.
The ultimate goal is to win against the strongest
human on Earth. 

When he issued the challenge, Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, a
physicist at JPL, wanted to jump-start research in
electroactive polymers, also known as artificial
muscles. He didn't expect to see the challenge
fulfilled for at least a couple of decades. "Given the
technology we had in 1999, I thought it would take at
least 20 years before we could do it," said Bar-Cohen,
who has been called the "Artificial Muscle Man." 

But he was wrong, and next week's event is a big step
forward in the development and testing of these
technologies. If the robotic arm wins, it will open
doors for many engineering technologies in medicine,
military defense and even entertainment. "You have to
ask whether science fiction drives reality, or reality
drives science fiction," Bar-Cohen said. 

The three artificial arms and their teams come from
around the world. Researchers from New Mexico and
Switzerland built arms made of plastics and polymers.
A group of students from Virginia Tech University in
Blacksburg, Virginia will also test their arm
invention made of gel fibers and electrochemical
cells. 

The arm wrestling contest is one of the highlights at
the Electroactive Polymer and Devices conference to be
held March 7-10, at the Town and Country Resort &
Convention Center in San Diego. The arm wrestling
competition is March 7, from 5:00 to 6:00 pm in the
Town & Country room at the convention center. The
conference and competition are part of the Smart
Structures and Materials symposium sponsored by the
International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE). 

Panna Felsen, a senior at La Costa Canyon High School
in San Diego who has participated in student robotics
competitions, will try to make the robotic arms buckle
during the contest. "I'm really excited to be the
human opponent, but I have no plans of making it easy
for the arms to win against me," Felsen said. "The
match will be a fair test of strength." 

After the competition, eight organizations will
demonstrate other applications using artificial
muscles, including an android head that makes and
responds to facial expressions, biologically inspired
robotic mechanisms and windows that change colors
electronically. 

Electroactive polymers are simple, lightweight strips
of highly flexible plastic that bend or stretch when
put into contact with chemicals or electricity. They
are quiet and shatterproof and can be used to imitate
human muscle movements. 

A small team of scientists at JPL, in cooperation with
research centers worldwide, are working to turn these
plastic strips into grippers and strings that can grab
and lift loads. JPL engineers are also hoping to build
a rover with legs fitted with artificial muscles. The
robot would be able to walk instead of rolling on
wheels on planetary surfaces. "My hope is to see a
rover run like a horse on Mars and climb steep
mountains like a monkey, allowing us to reach
distances and heights that are not possible with
wheeled rovers," said Bar-Cohen who has chaired the
conference for the past six years. During the
conference, he will receive the 2005 Smart Materials
and Structures Lifetime Achievement Award. 

For more information about the competition on the
Internet, visit:
http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/lommas/eap/EAP-armwrestling.htm
. 

For more information about the conference on the
Internet, visit:
http://spie.org/Conferences/Programs/05/ss/conferences/index.cfm?fu
seaction=5759 

For more information on Electroactive Polymers on the
Internet, visit: http://eap.jpl.nasa.gov 


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