| Author |
Message |
Eric P.
Guest
|
 Posted:
Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:30 pm Post subject:
Artificial Muscles |
|
|
Off topic but interesting. I had no idea this was so far along...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., issued a unique
challenge: build a robotic arm using artificial muscles that could
arm wrestle a human. The results of that challenge will be determined
next week, when three such robotic arms will "step into the ring" to
compete against a 17-year-old high school student. The ultimate goal
is to win against the strongest human on Earth.
http://www.physorg.com/news3213.html
comp.arch tie-in: Is what Cell processors could be controlling?
What kind of processor or architecture would best control all the
muscles in an artificial arm or leg?
Eric |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Ken Hagan
Guest
|
| Posted:
Fri Mar 04, 2005 3:21 pm Post subject:
Re: Artificial Muscles |
|
|
Eric P. wrote:
| Quote: | comp.arch tie-in: Is what Cell processors could be controlling?
What kind of processor or architecture would best control all the
muscles in an artificial arm or leg?
|
One that interfaces well to the main controller (my nervous system).
I can't see that the implant itself would have much processing to do.
One that has very low power requirements, because I don't want to be
changing the batteries very often. (Are there any ways of extracting
power from chemicals in the bloodstream or something?) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Eric P.
Guest
|
| Posted:
Fri Mar 04, 2005 8:34 pm Post subject:
Re: Artificial Muscles |
|
|
Ken Hagan wrote:
| Quote: |
Eric P. wrote:
comp.arch tie-in: Is what Cell processors could be controlling?
What kind of processor or architecture would best control all the
muscles in an artificial arm or leg?
One that interfaces well to the main controller (my nervous system).
I can't see that the implant itself would have much processing to do.
|
Depends on the usage. I was thinking of that walking Honda robot,
though factory robot arms for car manufacturing would likely
be a more practical product in the short term (gets some revenue
coming in to spur further development of the technology).
Though my personal favorite application is deformable airfoils.
The controller might be interesting. It sounds you apply a voltage
to expand a small 'muscle' segment. If you want the fine dexterity
you would need many small segments that can be controlled individually.
So I'm guessing an arm might have 10,000 control points.
You might have to phase sequence the activation and deactivation
of segments within muscle strands, with, say, 100 usec timing
tolerance. And there would be different patterns for different tasks.
So I'm thinking of a 'sea of simple processors on one chip' kind
of architecture. Say 4 bit'ers, or maybe even just 1 bit'ers
(What the heck is a 1 bit processor anyway?) with some central
control node and serial comms links to dispatch command packets.
Maybe some sort of programmable digital delay lines might help
with the time phase sequencing for individual muscle strands.
Anyhow... it could be an interesting project.
| Quote: | One that has very low power requirements, because I don't want to be
changing the batteries very often. (Are there any ways of extracting
power from chemicals in the bloodstream or something?
|
Yep, for portable units, as always, power supply is the big problem.
If you can solve it for arms and legs, you'll be powering
every laptop on the planet by years end
(and trying not to trip over your bags of cash).
Eric |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
israel
Guest
|
| Posted:
Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:56 am Post subject:
Re: Artificial Muscles |
|
|
Ken Hagan <K.Hagan@thermoteknix.co.uk> writes:
| Quote: | One that has very low power requirements, because I don't want to be
changing the batteries very often. (Are there any ways of extracting
power from chemicals in the bloodstream or something?)
|
A fuel cell based on using glucose from the blood ?
Perhaps a semipermeable membrane could be placed in contact with the skin
with a fluid on the other side.
It is routine to drive milligram quantities of drugs across the skin and into the
blood stream using a system like that.
Perhaps milligrams quantities of glucose can be extracted transcutaneously.
However, that would only power a rather teensy muscle. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
Memberlist
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in