Using piezoelectric materials, researchers have
replicated the muscle motion of the human eye to control camera systems in a
way designed to improve the operation of robots. This new muscle-like action
could help make robotic tools safer and more effective for MRI-guided surgery
and robotic rehabilitation. Key to the new control system is a piezoelectric
cellular actuator that uses a novel biologically inspired technology that will
allow a robot eye to move more like a real eye. This will be useful for
research studies on human eye movement as well as making video feeds from
robots more intuitive.
Researchers at the Georgia Tech Bio-Robotics
and Human Modeling Laboratory in the School
of Mechanical Engineering
mentioned that this technology will lay the groundwork for investigating
research questions in systems that possess a large number of active units
operating together. The application ranges from industrial robots, medical and
rehabilitation robots to intelligent assistive robots. Piezoelectric materials
expand or contract when electricity is applied to them, providing a way to
transform input signals into motion. This principle is the basis for
piezoelectric actuators that have been used in numerous applications, but use
in robotics applications has been limited due to piezoelectric ceramic’s
minuscule displacement.
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