Grace Williams reports for FOX News that CSAIL researchers are 3-D printing shock-absorbing skins to protect robots. “Dubbed the ‘programmable viscoelastic material’ (PVM) technique, MIT’s printing method gives objects the precise stiffness or elasticity they require,” writes Williams.
To develop safer, more durable robots, CSAIL researchers have developed a technique to 3-D print robots with shock-absorbing skins, reports Matt McFarland for CNN. McFarland explains that as the “‘bumpers’ aren't rigid, it's less dangerous for a robot to crash into something.”
Popular Science reporter Mary Beth Griggs writes that researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab have developed a method to 3-D print robots with customized shock absorbers. The researchers hope that the “shock absorbing material could be used to create better shock absorbers for delivery drones, shock-resistant shoe soles, and even helmets.”
Washington Post reporter Matt McFarland writes that MIT researchers have developed a technique for printing solid and liquid materials at the same time, a development that could make producing robots faster and easier. Prof. Daniela Rus explains that the new process could make “a big difference in what kind of machines you can make.”
Popular Science reporter Kelsey Atherton writes that a new 3-D printing process developed by MIT researchers incorporates both solid and liquid materials at the same time. Atherton explains that the prototype robot developed using the process walks “with hydraulic bellows, fluid pumping in and out to turn a crankshaft that moves the legs back and forth.”
Researchers from MIT CSAIL have developed a new 3-D printing process that produces robots with no assembly required, reports Brian Mastroianni for CBS News. “MIT's new process is significant in that the production period is streamlined, with the robot's solid and liquid hydraulic parts being created in one step,” Mastroianni explains.
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme writes that MIT researchers have developed a way to simultaneously 3-D print liquid and solid materials, “allowing them to create functional, nearly assembly-free robots.”
In this video, the BBC’s LJ Rich reports on the 3-D printed, soft robotic hand developed by researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Rich explains that the robotic hand can “handle objects as delicate as an egg and as thin as a compact disk.”
Washington Post reporter Rachel Feltman writes that MIT researchers have designed a new robotic hand with soft, 3-D printed fingers that can identify and lift a variety of objects. Prof. Daniela Rus explains that her group’s robotic hand operates in a way that is “much more analogous to what we do as humans."
Writing for Popular Science, Mary Beth Griggs reports on the soft robotic gripper developed by researchers at MIT CSAIL. “The silicone fingers are equipped with sensors that analyze the object they are touching and compare it to other items in its database,” Griggs writes.
CNBC reporter Robert Ferris writes about how MIT researchers have developed a soft robotic hand that can identify and safely grasp delicate objects. Ferris explains that the researchers designed a “soft silicone ‘hand’ with embedded sensors that they can train to recognize different things.”
MIT CSAIL researchers have developed a silicon gripper that allows robots to grasp a wide variety of items, reports Nidhi Subbaraman for BetaBoston. Subbaraman explains that the hand expands “to accommodate a shape, and grasps radially – surrounding an object instead of picking it up with pincers.”
“Inspired by octopus tentacles, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL)'s latest robot is as squishy as can be,” writes Rachel Feltman of The Washington Post. “Like other soft robots, this tentacle has potential in search and rescue missions.”
Thomas Tamblyn of The Huffington Post reports on a soft, tentacle-shaped robot developed by doctoral candidate Andrew Marchese and PhD student Robert Katzschmann: “The arm is made using purely silicone which is then inflated and deflated forcing the arm to move in the desired direction.”
Francie Diep writes for Popular Science about a soft robot designed by MIT’s Distributed Systems Lab, that is able to navigate a maze unaided: “Researchers that build soft robots like this one hope that in the future, soft machines will be safer for humans to work with than hard metal ones.”