Robot roundupRobot. When you hear that word, what do you

usually picture in your mind? Probably something that looks like a metal human with glowing lightbulb eyes and an electronic voice. Well, sure. Humanoid robots are just plain cool – like ASIMO, one of the most sophisticated robots in the world.

But if all the robotics engineers thought like that, we’d miss out on a lot of wild, exotic creations that can do things people can’t do. Read below about three cutting-edge designs that challenge our ideas of what a robot can be.

A robot you can squishMade almost entirely from soft

materials, this robot is designed to move the same way an earthworm

moves. It squeezes and expands segments of its body, one at a time, to inch its way forward. When earthworms do this, the motion is called peristalsis.

The robot is dubbed Meshworm because of the soft,

flexible mesh tube that forms most of the body. Wrapped around this tube is a wire made of nickel and titanium that has the strange property of changing its shape and rigidity as it changes temperature. This wire acts like an artificial muscle. When the wire’s temperature changes with an electric current,

it squeezes the mesh to contract like an earthworm’s body.

One cool thing – the body is very resilient. Step on this robot or smash it with a hammer, and it will just take its shape again like a water balloon.

May I take that for you?After a while on a long hike,

you just can’t wait to get your heavy pack off your back. Troops sometimes carry more than 100 pounds of equipment with them as they walk. This new robot, the LS3 (Legged Squad Support System), aims to lighten their load by

walking alongside them and carrying their packs.You can see why it is referred to as a

robotic mule. The LS3 is already performing well in tests, though engineers want to give it the ability to carry up to 400 pounds for an uninterrupted 20-mile walk. The LS3 can walk through hilly terrain or run (up to seven miles per hour) over flat land. And to boot, it can even

obey spoken commands.

Real-life transformersA robot that can reorganize

itself into different shapes is just the stuff of big-budget Hollywood

movies, right? Actually, so-called “self-configuring modular robots” are already a reality. They might not be

transforming into cars and planes yet, but then again, they are still in the early stages.

The robots are made of modules, or identical, repeating pieces. Often these pieces connect one to another like links in a chain. But each piece has a motor that lets it turn and change its angle independently. Imagine a long snake that contorts its body into the shape of a dog, for example.

Robot designer Ara Knaian describes where this technology might lead. In a presentation on his robot, the Milli-Motein, he describes a bag of lots of tiny modules. “You could reach into the bag and pull out some object you needed like a wrench or a coffee cup. And then when you are done with it, you could put it back in the bag, and it would break apart, and its objects would be available to form the next object you needed.” !

The Milli-Motein uses a design inspired by the folding structures of proteins.

!SySTEM AlertFebruary-March 2013 • Volume 1, No. 4

Tomorrow is almost here.

The Meshworm was created by researchers at MIT, Harvard University, and Seoul National University.

The LS3 is scheduled to be walking with troops in the field by 2014.

Image courtesy of www.marines.mil

Curriculum Connections• Robots • Simple Machines

Career Fields• Robotic Engineer • Robotic Technician

2 SySTEM Alert!

Moore’s Law says that advances in technology will double computing power every 18 months. This has held true for more than 50 years, but there are signs this is slowing down.

Technology

New invention could lead to clothes that soak up solar power

If you held Dr. John Badding’s latest invention in the palm of your hand, you might look at it and think of a strand of fiber that could be woven into a piece of fabric. Or you might be reminded of optical fibers similar to those you see twinkling in some Christmas trees. You definitely wouldn’t think of a solar collector. But the long thread in your hand would actually be all of these at once.

Dr. Badding, a chemist at Penn State University, has worked with partners in the United States and England to create a solar cell in the form of long optical fibers – potentially several meters long. Most photovoltaic (or solar) cells take the form of flat, rigid panels. In essence, Badding’s solar collectors work exactly the same way. However, their shape is completely different – and that means they can be used in different ways.

Among other things, this could lead to light, flexible solar collectors that could be worn. Fibers could be woven together to make a photovoltaic fabric. Imagine soaking up power for your cell phone while you take a walk on a sunny day.

A new use for old techOptical fibers, which are one of the most important and common

technologies of the modern information age, are long, flexible strands of glass that control

the flow of light. Just like water travels through the snaking form of a garden hose, a pulse of light travels down an optical fiber.

Several years ago, Badding became interested in what other uses optical fibers might have. He began working with a group in Southampton, England, that has been creating hollow optical fibers – basically glass tubes. His first thought regarding these special optical fibers was not solar cells.

Badding explains, “We thought, well maybe we can put some of the materials that are in chips, like semiconductors, into the fibers and these fibers could do new things. I started to use

Curriculum Connections• Carbon Footprint• Electronics• Material Science

Career Fields• Chemist• Fiber Optics Installer

Career inspirationBadding’s father, a chemist, inspired him to

follow a career in the field.“To me, being a scientist was exciting because you

could change the world,” says Badding. “The number of times this happens for any given person is not high.

It is really hard. But you have a chance to make a discovery or an invention that really can change things in a very big way.”

As he got older, he began to think about sustainability – the fact that humans are using up many of our natural resources.

“In other words, there is no way the human race will be able to continue in its present path for the next 100 years. It is just not going to happen. The only way to overcome this is with new science. A lot of the younger scientists that we see coming in now are really motivated by that challenge.” !

Dr. John Badding

Photos courtesy of Penn State University

Curriculum Connections• Food Science• Oceanography

Career Fields• Computer Scientist• Food Researcher

SySTEM Alert! 3

The Moon is moving away from Earth at about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) a year. This causes Earth to spin slower and days to get longer. In 4.5 billion years, there will be about 19 more hours in the day!

Math

The f low of thingsKnowledge we have about the

physical world helps us make better products. That is why Danisco, one of the world’s largest food-production companies, funded a recent project to create the best-ever computer simulations of moving fluid. The company believes understanding how

foods such as yogurt move over time can increase the shelf life of these products.

Fluid is harder to simulate than solid objects. Countless molecules move independently. To make a realistic simulation, these independent movements must be represented.

Previous methods used a grid pattern in which all the vertices were locked together. (A vertex is a point where lines meet.) The new method lets every vertex move separately. The effect is very realistic. !

How It WorksSolar cells convert sunlight into

electricity with the help of specially prepared silicon. One layer of the silicon is negatively charged. That means there are loose electrons in the material, eager to leave. The other layer is positively charged. That means there are openings for more electrons in the atomic structure.

The free electrons in the N (negative) layer are so eager to leave that even sunlight can bump them loose. Because they have to go somewhere, they head toward the vacancies in the P (positive) layer. It gets more complex, but this movement gets the current of electricity going.

The optical fiber solar cells that Dr. Badding’s team created work the same way – the parts are just in a different shape. You can see the negative and positive layers in the close-up picture. Though this image makes the fiber look large, it is actually about the size of a human hair. !

my chemistry skills to think about how to make that happen.”

The same techniques used for that were later useful in creating the solar cells. Badding’s team used gas to deposit the chemicals – molecule by molecule – inside the hollow fibers. The gas painted the inside of the fibers, layer by layer.

Proving it can be doneSometimes, an invention is special because

of what it does. Sometimes, the process of creating the invention and the discoveries you make along the way can be just as exciting.

“The novelty here lies in the geometry,” says Badding. “It’s not like this solar cell here is so great compared to a conventional solar cell at the moment. A conventional solar cell has been optimized for years. This type of solar cell is the first of its kind, so it is like a very young baby.”

In other words, the exciting part is the proof that a solar cell can be made like this. And the technique of painting the inside of the fibers with gas can be used even when the fibers are quite long. These things together open up new possibilities for Badding and other researchers who follow. !

Lab technician Todd Day prepares the fibers at a space called a laminar flow hood. This space is designed to minimize contaminants, or unwanted particles like dust, that could corrupt the material with which he works.

Deep secrets of earthquakes

Earthquakes can topple buildings and bridges, but they also cause damage you can’t see – deep down in the

earth. Most earthquakes happen near fault lines, or areas where giant sections of rock slowly push or grind against one another. Shaking causes tiny cracks in the ground in the area of the fault.

The cracks that one earthquake makes play a big part in determining how fierce the next quake will be. This is what experimenters at the University of California, Berkeley, showed using a tabletop model of an earthquake fault. If there is no shaking for a while, the fault

cracks can heal as rocks and minerals are deposited back in the spaces.

The longer a fault heals, the more rapidly it will shake in the next earthquake – and the more destructive it will be. Think of it this way: the presence of cracks lessens the quake’s ability to transmit its shaking. Imagine shaking a block of foam versus a bunch of packing peanuts. The block easily moves all in one piece. The foam pieces fall around your hand and don’t move all together. !

SySTEM shake-up!Every term in this puzzle can be found in the pages of this newsletter.

POOCVHATTIOL

TKHAEREUAQ

XTREVE

MASOI

INSLOCI

ONNAITMCTAN

TFALU

LCTEORNE

SYUBNITLIAITSA

OAITLPC

MSHE

The circled letters above reveal the word for the motion of an earthworm.

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SySTEM Alert! is published by Pitsco, Inc. Information and articles are geared to middle-level students. Packages of 25 color copies available for $10.

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Volume 1, No. 4

4 SySTEM Alert!

Go to www.pitsco.com/sySTEMalert for the answers. !

Curriculum Connections• Dynamic Earth

• Statistical Analysis

Career Fields• Seismologist

“The longer a fault heals, the more rapidly it will shake in the next earthquake – and the more destructive it will be.”