How Pine Cones Inspired Making Of These New Micro Robots

Short Bytes: Researchers at Seoul National University have been inspired by the adaptation of pine cones to change in humidity into the making of tiny robots, powered solely through changes in humidity.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you come across a pine tree on a winter morning? Most of us would probably admire the beauty of it.

However, a group of researchers at Seoul National University is greatly fascinated by their adaptation to change in humidity and studying it to find huge application in robotics as well. The reason being that plants follows a comparatively simpler mechanism over animals.

So how is the future of Robotics inspired from plants or pine trees in particular?

At the 68th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, of the American Physical Society held on Nov 22-24, 2015, in Boston, they explained how plant mechanism enabled them to develop tiny robots powered solely through changes in humidity.

Awns are composed of two layers of tissue, one that swells with humidity – active, and the other that is insensitive to humidity changes – inactive. If the humidity in environment tends to increase, the bilayer bends from changes in lengths swelling. Depending on the periodic humidity changes, the bilayer tends to bend and unbend repeatedly, thus ensuring that changes in environmental humidity could be converted to mechanical work.  This led to the realization that if the bilayer structure could be imitated in making an actuator, then it was possible to generate motion on utilizing environmental humidity changes.

Also Read: Science Fiction Comes True: Experience 3D Without Using Glasses

Building up a robot:

Plants tend to move slowly. Perhaps, so slowly that one cycle of bending and unbending could take a whole day. Hence, the increase in response speed of bilayer demands the development of a new way of fabricating the active layer. The response speed tends to increase with the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the layer since humidity is absorbed quickly and so active nanoscale fibers are deposited onto an inactive layer. The development of a robot demanded repeated bending as well as unbending without producing net locomotion.

Kim states:

“This motion of cycle needs to be converted into directional motion in order to create a robot which moves.”

On this, Kim said:

“Making a bilayer for the robots isn’t difficult, but making a fast one requires technical expertise. Generally, it tends to be drier during the day and more humid at night — the periodic humidity change cycle that enables seeds to bury themselves in the ground. Humidity changes occur even when we breathe, because humid air is exhaled.”

The group had also created a mathematical model to discover the optimum design for the robot in achieving the fastest speed for any given robot size. After this, researchers are optimistic of exploring the potential of human skin, which is more humid than the atmosphere.

Did you find this pine cone-inspired micro robots interesting? Add your views in the comments below.

Hacklet 89 – Star Wars Projects

Star Wars is an inspirational force to be reckoned with. Few movie franchises have quite so many fans creating everything from elaborate cosplay outfits to fully functional robots. At the 2015 Hackaday SuperCon, former R2D2 driver Grant Imahara mentioned that LucasArts used to maintain a fleet of robots to be deployed at events. Once the execs realized hacker, maker, and hobbyist robots are now more advanced than the machines they built for the actual films, they mothballed the fleet. If you see R2 at a Star Wars event this season, it’s probably an enthusiast behind the controls. This week’s Hacklet is dedicated to the best Star Wars projects on Hackaday.io!

We start with [Nathan Gray] and Star Wars Nerf Targets. [Nathan] needed a Star Wars themed game for an event for the kids, and he needed it fast. [Nathan] built a Nerf shooting gallery game with a Star Wars twist. The idea is to shoot the bad guys with Nerf darts. Targets have two sides, so you never can be sure if you’ll see a storm trooper or a friendly Wookie. Hits are detected by piezoelectric disks on each target. A control panel starts the game, keeps score, and plays some great sound effects. An Arduino compatible Teensy 2.0 keeps everything running smoothly. [Nathan] reports that the game was a hit with the kids, and everyone else at the party. Even Grandma had to give the Star Wars Nerf Targets game a try!

Next up is Hackaday’s own [Brian Benchoff] with The Hackaday Prize Moisture Vaporator. The 2015 Hackaday Prize promo video called for something space related. Since Southern California has plenty of desert around, a moisture vaporator straight out of Tatooine was just what the doctor ordered. [Brian], [Matt], [Rich] and [Alek] handled most of the construction at the Hackaday Hackerspace in Pasadena. Final assembly was a team effort out in the field. The basic frame of the vaporator consisted of 1 x 3 lumber joined with pocket screws. An iron pipe served as the spine. [Brian] added plenty of greebles to give the vaporator just the right look. The result makes us long for a trip to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters.

[Davedarko] is up next with Towani Lifesign Wristdevice – Star Wars Ewoks. This was one of [Dave’s] earliest projects on Hackday.io, way down at project #616. He originally built it for the Sci-Fi contest we held in 2014. The Towani family was in the Ewoks movies, which were lesser known spinoffs of the original Star Wars films. The wristbands showing the family’s vitals were featured a few times in the movies. [Dave’s] version is more than a movie prop, it actually works. He’s using an open hardware pulse sensor along with an Arduino Mini to display status on a trio of LEDs.

Finally, we have [Enrico] with Our own BB-8 droid. BB-8 made a splash when he rolled out on stage during Star Wars Celebration. Everyone wondered how the original was done. We’ve since found out that the BB-8 uses Sphero’s technology to get around. However, many of the movie scenes were done with good old-fashioned puppeteer work. [Enrico] is building his own version of BB-8 using holonomic wheels inside the sphere, with a magnetically attached head. He’s planning to 3D print the major parts of his droid. So far, [Enrico] has started testing with magnets. A few printed plastic parts from his R2D2 build have been standing in for the BB-8 shell.

If you want to see more projector projects, check ouStar Wars project list! If I missed your project due to a great disturbance in the force, don’t be a nerf herder! Just drop me a message on Hackaday.io. That’s it for this week’s Hacklet. As always, see you next week. Same hack time, same hack channel, bringing you the best of Hackaday.io! May the force be with you.