Engineers Create Robot Muscles Than Are 1000 Times Stronger Than Human
Robotics is finally taking the form of reality and what was once considered only fiction is right here in front of us. We have always seen robots being portrayed as powerful machines that are capable of lifting heavy stuff and able to perform feats of great strength. This story is about one such research which is being carried out at UC Berkeley that aims to provide us with robots that which the same Superman strength. The Berkeley Labs has stated that it has achieved ‘Robot-muscles’ which are a thousand times stronger than an average human.
These muscles have employed the use of vanadium dioxide and its unique properties which allow for such a miracle to occur. This compound is capable of changing from an insulator to a conductor at a temperature of 67 degrees Celsius. The transition results in huge quantity of strength. Berkeley Labs had this to say about the robotic muscle strength; ‘able to catapult objects 50 times heavier than itself over a distance five times its length within 60 milliseconds — faster than the blink of an eye.’
Now just imagine a robot pulling off such a feat. The Berkeley labs are sure that this invention will be fueling the limbs of the future, the ones which are robotic in nature. They are also pinning their hopes to this invention in context of breaking through and coming up with a new volume of energy-efficient electronics. Muscles that employ vanadium dioxide have successfully been tested at 200,000 RPMs and you’d be surprised to know that there was no breaking down of any kind whatsoever.
The future sure looks bright. However, we would strongly suggest that you do not anger these robots or we might have to look for you all over the city.
– Rahul Raghuwanshi (data sourced)