Technophobes beware — the Eccerobot may be your worst nightmare. A team of scientists have created a robot inspired by the human build, so it can act more like living, breathing people.
The Eccerobot team aims to create robots with bones and joints, making movements more rounded and not so robotic. The idea behind the project is that human capabilities stem from the intricacies of our skeletal and muscular systems.
The Eccerobot, having muscles and bones — forearm rotators and shoulder blades — will allow for complex movements. Copying the mechanics of our intricate bodies, the scientists helped relieve some of the limitations of robotic bodies.
Typical robots are built with standard engineering techniques with stiff parts. Their Eccerobot counterparts with muscles and tendons will be able to walk and move their arms with more speed and rhythm.
“You can use the passive compliance to make it absorb the energy in the right way to allow for safe interaction and to store energy in the muscles to produce fast movement,” explained Hugo Gravato Marques with the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Switzerland, in a YouTube video.
The completed robot model now is a half-torso that sits on a mobile platform. It has arms with numerous parts that detect strain. Bones are made from a thermoplastic material that morphs into shape with heat. It can hold objects, shake hands and lift its arm smoothly.
The creators of the Eccerobot include the University of Sussex, the Artificial Intelligence Lab of the University of Zurich and the University of Belgrade.
The next step is to improve the robot’s movement, interaction and controlled manipulation. The scientists believe that this will pave way for a new era in robotics, according to Eccerobot.com.
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