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Article: 'Quality sensors': shape-changing robots for tight spaces.(Soldier Technology)
- Article from:
- National Defense
- Article date:
- October 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 National Defense Industrial Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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* Movie audiences were wowed by the special effects in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, when a human-like robot changed its form and squeezed through small holes.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency now wants to take a small step toward making science fiction a reality with a robot that can perform the same shape-shifting functions.
Such a robot would need to be soft, flexible and highly resilient, said Mitchell Zakin, a program manager at DARPA. He's calling the concept the "ChemBot" because its outer layer will have to be made of a pliable skin-like substance rather than of inflexible hard metal.
"During military operations ...