Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
An issue facing medical scientists has been creating non-rigid robots small enough to work in environments that are impossible for surgeons to access. While there has been some success in this field; some have managed to make soft, centimeter-sized devices for example; overall, this goal has evaded experts.
Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Boston University, have developed a new process that allows the creation of millimeter-sized flexible robots. Published in Advanced Materials, the researchers outlined how they made a tiny device that had micrometer-scale features, meaning it could operate in small, inaccessible areas.
I, of course, mean a robotic soft spider modeled after the Australian peacock spider. Which, for your information, looks like this:
They created their version of this horror from a single piece of an elastic-like material. And, it looks like this:
[...] The smallest soft robotic systems still tend to be very simple, with usually only one degree of freedom, which means that they can only actuate one particular change in shape or type of movement. In other words, this would make them pretty useful for micro-operations that involve movement in more than one direction, which, and let;s be honest here, is most of them.
[...] By developing a new hybrid technology that merges three different fabrication techniques, we created a soft robotic spider made only of silicone rubber with 18 degrees of freedom, encompassing changes in structure, motion, and color, and with tiny features in the micrometer range. The idea behind creating the, uh, soft robot spider was to show the potential of this new fabrication process. This is a first-of-its-kind technology called a Microfluidic Origami for Reconfigurable Pneumatic/Hydraulic (MORPH) device.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 17 2018, @10:42PM (4 children)
I didn't click on the links to what the spiders, or the robot spiders, look like. I hate spiders with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.
If I have to choose between letting spiders crawl over or in me, and dying, I am very likely to choose death.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 17 2018, @10:45PM (2 children)
A robot isn't an arachnid. Although maybe it could also deliver a deadly venom into your body. Or at the sizes they're working on, maybe it could crawl up your urethra.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Friday August 17 2018, @10:59PM
LOL. I came here to post that Peacock spiders come in a wide variety of shapes and colors [peacockspider.org]. I think they're adorable.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday August 17 2018, @11:34PM
That's not a big deal. A lot of folks do it for fun, they call it sounding.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday August 17 2018, @11:26PM
I'll take the spiders. I'm 72, my last Doctor told me I can live to 200 if I take care of myself -- long time. And I'm taking care of myself. I'm eating right and not getting too much exercise. Except a little golf. They can do the spiders, no problem. ZERO problem. But if they want to do sharks I'll have to think about that one. Sharks swimming around inside me, big time nightmare!!!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Friday August 17 2018, @11:52PM
Back in the 80's my dad had surgery for polyps in his intestine. Seems they got infected and caused a ton of pain. That and if you let them go they'd kill him.
He was in the hospital for a week or so, bedridden for another couple weeks, and got these big ass scars to show for it.
Fast forward to the '00s, dad had surgery for the same damned thing (glad it either wasn't hereditary, or that my genes skipped it). Outpatient procedure, I think he skipped a day of work (the day they did the procedure).
I'll take the soft fuzzy spiders over the masked dude with a scalpel any day.
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.