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We've relocated our office to Sequim, but we're not gone! We welcome you to register with us to access our updated contact information. Also, as a registered user, you'll be able to learn more about our newly-implemented LogMeIn Rescue service, which enables us to solve many computer problems within minutes of your call! Register today!| Super Teen Crushes Roboarm Menace |
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| Written by Lester Haines of theregister.co.uk | |||
| Tuesday, 08 March 2005 08:34 | |||
Panna Felsen - a name now elevated to the Pantheon of Glory here at the NRA - arm-wrestled into submission a trio of experimental cyberarms at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, California. The contest was apparently set up to "encourage the development of polymer-based artificial muscles". Organiser Yoseph Bar-Cohen say the whole project is aimed at "improving on existing actuators - or muscles - currently used in prosthetics and robots".
According to New Scientist: "Electric motors tend to be too weak, while hydraulics and pneumatics are too heavy for use in robotics or prosthetics. EAPs [electroactive polymers], in comparison are lightweight, quiet and capable of energy densities similar to biological muscles."
Those readers not au fait with electroactive polymers should note that they are "plastics that can change shape when activated either electrically or with chemicals". Sadly for the three teams competing in the arm-wresting challenge (two from the US, and one from Switzerland), the battling teen easily overcame her adversaries "in a matter of seconds", leaving the unfortunate developers to report abject failure to their dark masters*. This is not an end to the matter, however. Bar-Cohen says the ultimate aim of the EAP plan is to produce a robotic arm which can defeat the strongest human. Tune in on Friday to discover why this scheme holds the terrifying prospect of humanity enslaved to murderous self-replicating hoovers serviced by monkey-brain-controlled EAP-powered limbs.
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