Creations with ever more sophisticated capabilities: In the November issue, bild der Wissenschaft reports on the fascinating developments in the field of robotics. Using nanotechnology, researchers are working on tiny things that could carry out medical missions in the future, and macroscopic systems are also making progress: they are equipped with flexible materials with a tactile feel and artificial intelligence is intended to make robots ever smarter.
They take on annoying or difficult tasks or are helpful to us – robots have been used in this way for a long time: They do assembly line work in the automotive industry, manage warehouses or carry out cleaning tasks for people. As technology continues to develop, more and more innovative power is emerging: various research groups around the world are working on expanding the capabilities of robots and opening up new fields of activity. These developments are being driven by increasingly sophisticated technical possibilities.
Healing tiny things
The focus of the first article in the three-part title topic “The New Robots” is extreme miniaturization. The bdw author Reinhard Breuer reports on the progress in the development of micro- and nanorobots. Some versions are constructed from amazing-looking material: the building blocks of DNA. Among other things, such tiny creatures could carry out medical missions in the body, according to the future vision. In order to patrol them or send them specifically to sources of disease, they must have a drive and control system. The techniques researchers want to use to overcome this challenge are the focus of the article “How the Dwarves Get Forward”.
Robots with tact
In the second part of the article, Breuer then turns his attention from the microscopic to the macroscopic developments in robotics. “Gentle” technology is becoming more and more important: In so-called soft robotics, flexible materials and movement systems are used that are based on models from nature. They open up possible applications in industry, medicine and in dealing with people that conventional systems with their rigid structures do not offer. The author reports, among other things, on innovative systems that enable sensitive gripping. It is also about the development of artificial muscles that will give robots human-like motor skills. The developers were inspired, among other things, by spider legs, reports the author in the article “Grabbing with Spider Powers”.
The cover story is rounded off by an interview that bdw technology editor Ralf Butscher conducted with robotics expert Werner Kraus from the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart. Among other things, it addresses the question of why service robots have not already found their way into our everyday lives. Kraus explains what successes, potential and challenges he sees in the technology. The integration of artificial intelligence into the robotics systems is particularly important, as can be seen from the interview entitled “With AI, the answer to the box works”.
You can read the articles on the cover topic “The New Robots” online as part of a bdw+ subscription, or you can find them in the November issue of bild der Wissenschaft, which will be available in stores from October 20th.