Flexible yet sturdy robot is designed to “grow” like a plant #Robotics #Robot #MIT

Sometimes if you want to innovate you need to look to nature. Researchers are trying to improve robotic dexterity by mimicking plants.

VIa MIT News:

Now MIT engineers have developed a robot designed to extend a chain-like appendage flexible enough to twist and turn in any necessary configuration, yet rigid enough to support heavy loads or apply torque to assemble parts in tight spaces. When the task is complete, the robot can retract the appendage and extend it again, at a different length and shape, to suit the next task.

The appendage design is inspired by the way plants grow, which involves the transport of nutrients, in a fluidized form, up to the plant’s tip. There, they are converted into solid material to produce, bit by bit, a supportive stem.

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