
‘Robotic Skins’ turn everyday objects into robots - sahin-boydas
https://news.yale.edu/2018/09/19/robotic-skins-turn-everyday-objects-robots
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anonymfus
_> a shirt-like wearable device designed to correct poor posture_

 _> So just like you would wrap a robotic skin around an object, you can also
wrap it around yourself. One of the demos that we've created is showing the
robotic skin on an upper body garment using the sensors in the scan to track
posture, and then pulsing actuators when you pass a certain posture threshold,
to communicate with the wearer that they should sit back up._

"Living tissue inside a metal endoskeleton" quoting that animated Doctor Who
and Terminator crossover called "The ExTerminator".

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jacobush
_inside_ endoskeleton?

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ghkbrew
So... bone marrow

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Grue3
I can't be the only one who wanted that toy horse to actually walk. It was
underwhelming when it barely moved.

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anfractuosity
Yeah I was disappointed with the movement of the horse too :(

I've not read the paper yet, but I wonder if the limited movement of the horse
is due to the actuators themselves not being able to deform the horse's legs
enough?

I just found this 'micro actuator' which looks pretty awesome -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHGLYRUKWeM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHGLYRUKWeM)

Also [http://www-robot.mes.titech.ac.jp/research/pamsoftrobo.html](http://www-
robot.mes.titech.ac.jp/research/pamsoftrobo.html) looks very impressive

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s512783
I'm really struggling to see how this could be useful in space exploration.
They claim that the benefit is that it's reconfigurable, so you can send less
stuff to orbit. What they do not talk about is power density - pneumatic
actuators do really bad here. Those devices + power packs would have to be
huge, way larger than purpose-built electric systems, which would probably
destroy the gains from reconfigurability.

But that's based on the youtube video, which is typical marketing-speak. The
paper is much more toned down. It's a cool idea, but I don't like when people
make exploratory research look like it's anywhere near application stage.

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vorpalhex
This is ripe for a horror game (and maybe even partially inspired by one -
Five Nights at Freddy's). Just imagine an oozing slime that turns ordinary
crap into creepy robots intent on eating you.

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Raphmedia
Somewhat similar to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo)

"Grey goo (also spelled gray goo) is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario
involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating
robots consume all biomass on Earth while building more of themselves,[1][2] a
scenario that has been called ecophagy ("eating the environment", more
literally "eating the habitation").[3] The original idea assumed machines were
designed to have this capability, while popularizations have assumed that
machines might somehow gain this capability by accident."

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robotrout
There is some of this in the "Bobiverse" trilogy which I very highly
recommend. Funny and Smart.

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gmueckl
I cannot access the paper proper. What is tha actual actuator made out of?

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Confiks
The current address of SciHub is [https://sci-hub.tw/](https://sci-hub.tw/),
and the DOI of the paper is 10.1126/scirobotics.aat1853.

As for the actuators: "One of the implementations used pneumatic actuators
integrated into an elastomer substrate, whereas the other used coiled shape
memory alloy (SMA) actuators integrated onto a fabric substrate."

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kough
Why not just link tfa? [https://sci-
hub.tw/10.1126/scirobotics.aat1853](https://sci-
hub.tw/10.1126/scirobotics.aat1853)

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baldfat
My wife would buy that t-shirt in a hart beat. She is always concerned about
her posture and I bet you there are a ton of other people like her.

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leowoo91
Great, now all the waste can turn into a giant spider.

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mxuribe
This is much cooler than the exo-skeletons/exo-suits that i imagined after
having watched those Alien movies from the 80s/90s!

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MrZongle2
That is crazy, amazing, and wonderful.

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tomcooks
Onahole mod in 3..2..

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transfire
Sex doll applications?

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apsdsm
All I saw was robotic dildos.

