Biodegradable robot parts made from pig gelatine and cotton fiber
The disposal of robot components is complex. They usually end up in the trash. What if they could biodegrade themselves?
The biodegradable robotic arm is controlled by a joystick, which is also biodegradable.
(Image: Westlake University u. a. (Screenshot))
A team of engineers from Westlake University, Zhejiang Normal University and Shaoxing University have used a robotic arm to test which materials can be used to make biodegradable robot parts. They used cotton cellulose films and pig gelatine.
Robot parts are usually made of materials that have to be thrown away or recycled at the end of their useful life. The research team from the three participating universities investigated whether components for robots can also be made from biodegradable materials that decompose by themselves later on. The results of the study “Biodegradable origami enables closed-loop sustainable robotic systems” have been published in Science Advances.
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Robotic arm and joystick decompose by themselves
The researchers created a thin-walled, flexible tube from cotton cellulose films. They equipped parts of its surface with ionically conductive pig gelatin threads. The researchers assembled a total of three such tube modules into a longer tube. The result was a 240 mm long, very simple, soft robotic arm with origami folding, which is quite robust.
By applying a current to the conductive pig gelatin threads, the component contracts or expands. This allows the arm to be bent, lengthened and shortened. At the same time, the gelatine threads act as a sensor, as they change their resistance and thus provide information about the position of the robot arm at a certain point in time. The scientists built a second, smaller version of the arm and used it as a kind of joystick to control the movement of the large robotic arm.
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The components of the robotic arm and the joystick are 100 percent biodegradable. In principle, they can be used as fertilizer after their lifetime, the researchers believe. They believe that a tiny version for medical use could also be created for use inside a human body. After successful use, the robotic arm would dissolve in the body and degrade naturally.
(olb)
