Meshworm the earthworm robot from DARPA and MIT

Meshworm know, the last robot heads the MIT, Harvard and the Seoul National University.

It's a little bit, the length of his hand and he inches above the floor, nice and slow, like a fat worm of robotics.

But while Meshworm cannot move fast, or very much so far, it can be stopped is not easy. Pass in front of him, and he returned to his old form, strange crawling their way.

 

Meshworm the earthworm robot from DARPA and MIT

 Blow on the head with a hammer, and he does not care. It flattens out for a while and then return to your reptile.

Somehow cannot stop the soft little robot, the robot is almost more insidious than we've ever seen.

But what Meshworm is really good, and why DARPA is funding the project because it is designing a robotic system shows smooth. And flexible robotic systems that are less rigid and more malleable than the fancy pieces of metal robots to see, are used, they can navigate better able to rough terrain or maneuver in tight spaces.

"You can [Meshworm] and is not to be taken to collapse," said Kim Sungbae, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and an investigator of the project, in a statement. "Most mechanical parts are rigid and fragile, small, but the parties are Meshworms fibrous and flexible."

The type of movement, the worms, snails and sea cucumbers, to be able to get from one place to another - Meshworm movements are based on the principles of peristalsis is based. This is the alternating compression and stretching the muscles along the length of her body. We have gastro-intestinal tract in order to use the same type of action in order to push food into the stomach.

To mimic this movement, the researchers in a tubular body made of a flexible polymer mesh, which has similar characteristics of a spring. Artificial muscle groups were measured using a nickel-titanium alloy which changes its flexibility on the basis of the temperature. The effect of the movement of a circuit board and battery to the tube to produce a wire section of the titanium alloy heat, causing it to squeeze the tubing and pushing the front of the robot.

The key is that all parts of the robot are soft. "The muscles are soft, the body is soft ... you begin to show a treatment capacity of the body," Kim said.

Robot chewable tablets, we look forward to your visit. But we hope that you are more beautiful than an earthworm.

Images of Meshworm the earthworm robot from DARPA and MIT: