These beautiful inventions are the exploration of engineers to make industrial equipment with superior performance and lower energy consumption. Please follow in our footsteps and walk into the robot zoo.
I stood dumbfounded, staring at the behemoth floating overhead.
It was a manta ray with a body full of helium, about 3 meters long, its silver wings gently lapping against the surrounding air, swimming in the air with great grace, only the rustle of its skin and the sizzle of its electric muscles revealed the true identity of its robot.
This bionic robot is the perfect masterpiece for Festo in Germany.
However, Festo is neither a toy manufacturer nor an artificial intelligence expert, its main business is to manufacture industrial machinery that is used to weld, fix, cut and punch holes at high speeds on the production line.
Pamela Berner, head of the company's public relations department, explains: "We have always been committed to developing machines with superior performance and less energy consumption. To this end, we seek inspiration from animal movement. In fact, over the course of a long period of evolution, nature has had plenty of time to adjust the animals' motor function to optimal. ”
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > imitate animals, wisely</h1>
For more than a decade, the company's engineers have been busy making models of robotic animals: penguins, jellyfish, birds, fish, and elephant trunks.
The rule is that each model must lead to one or more industrial applications. Take the manta ray in front of you, whose dancing wings give birth to an efficient mechanical tweezer that can grasp tiny objects without fail!
Also on the basis of this model, Festo's engineers completed their top-of-the-line work – the Asuka Robot!
Unfortunately, the company treats these works as treasures and refuses to display them easily, and only at professional salons or exhibitions can you catch a glimpse of one or two pieces from time to time.
In contrast, the next thing we will present to you will be a robot zoo that brings together many of the company's creations!
< h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > the trunk</h1>
A historic handshake between humans and machines.
The "Elephant Trunk Manipulator", inspired by the elephant's nose, was able to subtly mimic the smooth and gentle signature movements of its prototype.
Even if this machine trunk accidentally hits you, it will not cause you any harm.
Festo believes that this invention can not only be used in the industrial field in the future, but also improved, and can also be used in many places where machines have direct contact with humans, such as hospitals and laboratories.
At the tip of the machine trunk is a three-fingered manipulator fixed to the axis of motion. When grasping tiny objects, soft "fingers" can change shape with the contours of the objects, making the operation more appropriate.
At present, two companies are equipped with this "elephant trunk manipulator", Festo does not want to disclose the name of the company, but after our investigation, we learned that one of them is in the Netherlands, using a "elephant trunk manipulator" to select tulip bulbs; the other is a German chocolate company, "elephant trunk manipulator" is used for egg-shaped chocolate boxing.
Working principle:
The "elephant trunk" consists of 3 hollow round tubes side by side, which are equivalent to muscles. Inflating one of the round tubes, the air sacs made of polyamide (commonly known as "nylon") material expand, and the round tubes elongate.
Inflatable round tube extension; long hollow round tube
But because it is also held back by two other uninflated round tubes, it bends. At this time, as long as air is also injected into another round tube, the "elephant trunk" can be easily controlled to rotate in all directions, up, down, left and right.
Even better, the "elephant trunk" can be bent and twisted at will, because it is formed by the head and tail of 3 such components, and these 9 "muscles" act in groups of every 3 pieces. Mechanical pressure sensors measure the tensile force at each junction and transmit the data to a computer, which controls the inflation or deflation of each cylinder.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > seagull</h1>
The "Smart Bird" is one of the most advanced in Festo's robotic animal camp. Instead of helium, it flaps its wings like a real bird, enough to make a fool of itself. This magical robot bird can not only fly and glide, but also complete the take-off and landing movements independently.
Not only that, but it also adjusts itself in real time based on wind direction and air pressure changes. The remote control only controls the general direction. For Festo's energy-saving goals, the "Smart Bird" makes this wish a perfect realization.
To maintain its flight state, it only needs 23 watts of electricity, and the power consumption is only equivalent to an energy-saving light bulb.
The "Smart Bird" is mainly made of plastic and carbon fiber, and the shell shaped like a seagull weighs only 26 grams!
Built-in gears control the flapping of the wings
In order to minimize the weight of the bird's body, its internal structure is very simple, with only a built-in gear system to control the flapping of the wings. Mini motors located at the tip of the wings are used to control the slight rotation of the wings forward or backward to propel the "smart bird" forward. The built-in computer precisely coordinates the movement of the wings in real time to ensure smooth flight movements.
< h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > barracuda</h1>
The barracuda was one of the original works of The Festo company and is relatively primitive compared to other robotic animals. Its main body is a huge cavity that can be controlled by pouring water or inflating it into it to control the rise and fall of the fish's body. Excess air can be discharged through small holes flush with the mouth.
Two giant inflatable "muscles" achieve a tail swing, so that the fish can keep moving forward. The fish's tail is like a rudder, controlling the direction of the fish's progress, and the two "muscles" hidden on the side of the body can control its angle and achieve a gorgeous turn.
< h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > penguin</h1>
Among The many robotic animals of Festo, penguins are direct descendants of manta rays. Like manta rays, the penguin's spindle-shaped body is filled with helium to guarantee its buoyancy in the air, while the waving wings are responsible for the forward momentum.
The obvious difference between the two is that penguins can back off and no operator is required! Under the monitoring of the ground-based computer system, the penguins can roam freely with other robots of the same type without colliding with each other.
That's because engineers installed ultrasonic transmitters and receivers on the penguins so that they could position each other.
Other ground-based ultrasonic emitters can build a virtual barrier that prohibits penguins from crossing based on computer instructions, thereby locking them up in an invisible aerial aquarium.
Inside the penguin's wings, there is a hard lever that swings up and down under the force of the engine. Since this lever is not located in the middle of the wing, but at the front of the wing, the leading edge of the wing is raised before the hind edge when the lever is lifted from the bottom up; similarly, when the lever descends from the top, the leading edge of the wing descends first.
The servo motor can push the end of the tie rod towards the leading or trailing edge of the wing
With this urge to move its wings, the penguin can keep moving forward. So how do you make it backwards? It couldn't be simpler, just install another engine and pull the end of the lever towards the trailing edge of the wing. In this way, when the penguin flaps its wings, it can go backwards.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > manta ray</h1>
The robot, called Air-Ray, was one of the first prototypes developed by Festo. The manta ray's body is filled with helium in order to be able to fly in the air. The robot is designed to demonstrate the efficient driving force of the Fin Ray effect.
With the help of its unusually simple mechanical components inside, the robot is able to mimic the movement of manta rays' fins, thus "fishing like a fish" in a variety of fluid environments. The counterweight on the tail fin only works when the robot is lifted and lowered. The machine manta ray can be remotely controlled, but the remote controller must control each engine separately, so it is very complicated to operate.
After the efficiency of the device was verified, Festo placed the "fin" at the end of the funnel as a moving part. When a ball (or other small object we want to screen) enters the funnel, the camera recognizes the object and decides which basket to put it in.
Under the action of the engine, the "fin" quickly twists left and right, pointing the outlet at the corresponding basket, so that the ball will automatically slide to the correct place. This machine, which is still in the prototype stage, can play a huge role in any assembly line that needs to be screened in the future.
Imagine a piece of paper folded in half. When you rub the folded paper surfaces in half against each other, the creases rise or fall accordingly.
Cable controlling longitudinal oscillation (shown in blue)
The double fin movement of the robotic manta ray is no more complicated than this: the edges of the fins are covered with cables that are pulled in turn by small electric motors, and some control the longitudinal movement of the fins from top to bottom; and some are stretched from front to back, so that the fins can be twisted back and forth. Together, the machine manta ray leaps forward.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > humanoid robot</h1>
Don't be fooled by this Terminator-like upper body, it's just a window, and the real attention is to those pneumatic muscles.
Not only are they powerful, but they are also durable, making them suitable for all types of industrial machinery.
As for the humanoid arm, although it is not actually within the scope of application envisioned by Festo, it may be the first step towards a high-load exoskeleton.
Each "muscle" on the robot's arm is actually a rubber tube covered with aramid, an ultra-high-strength material used to make bulletproof vests and military helmets. The aramid fibers wound in a special way make the "muscle" filled with high-pressure air only expand radially, so when the rubber tube is inflated, its length will be shortened accordingly, resulting in a strong traction force.
According to Festo, this rubber muscle can have up to 10 times the strength of the pneumatic piston of the same pipe diameter! The slimnest "muscle" (1 cm in diameter) can lift objects of about 70 kg, while the thickest "muscle" (4 cm in diameter) can lift objects of more than 500 kg! What a Hercules!
Written by Erwan Lecomte
Compiled by Jialei Wang