死んだクモの脚を空気の吹き出しで操作し、グラブとして機能 Lab manipulates dead spiders’ legs with a puff of air to serve as grabbers
2022-07-25 ライス大学
人間や他の哺乳類が、対立する筋肉を同期させて手足を動かすのとは違い、クモは油圧を使います。クモは頭の近くにある部屋を収縮させて手足に血液を送り、強制的に手足を伸ばします。圧力がなくなると、脚は収縮する。
研究者らは、小型のクモはその大きさに比べてより重い荷物を運ぶことができると指摘する。逆に、大きなクモほど、自分の体重に比べられる荷重は小さくなります。
無生物のクモをすぐに使用できるアクチュエータとして再利用し、生物材料をロボットコンポーネントとして使用する「ネクロボティクス」の領域を開始。
<関連情報>
- https://news.rice.edu/news/2022/rice-engineers-get-grip-necrobotic-spiders
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/advs.202201174
ネクロボティクス すぐに使えるアクチュエーターとしての生体材料 Necrobotics: Biotic Materials as Ready-to-Use Actuators
Te Faye Yap,Zhen Liu,Anoop Rajappan,Trevor J. Shimokusu,Daniel J. Preston
Advanced Science Published: 25 July 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202201174
Abstract
Designs perfected through evolution have informed bioinspired animal-like robots that mimic the locomotion of cheetahs and the compliance of jellyfish; biohybrid robots go a step further by incorporating living materials directly into engineered systems. Bioinspiration and biohybridization have led to new, exciting research, but humans have relied on biotic materials—non-living materials derived from living organisms—since their early ancestors wore animal hides as clothing and used bones for tools. In this work, an inanimate spider is repurposed as a ready-to-use actuator requiring only a single facile fabrication step, initiating the area of “necrobotics” in which biotic materials are used as robotic components. The unique walking mechanism of spiders—relying on hydraulic pressure rather than antagonistic muscle pairs to extend their legs—results in a necrobotic gripper that naturally resides in its closed state and can be opened by applying pressure. The necrobotic gripper is capable of grasping objects with irregular geometries and up to 130% of its own mass. Furthermore, the gripper can serve as a handheld device and innately camouflages in outdoor environments. Necrobotics can be further extended to incorporate biotic materials derived from other creatures with similar hydraulic mechanisms for locomotion and articulation.
