Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems claim to have made a breakthrough and created a robotic leg that moves using artificial muscles.
Inspired by observations of humans and animals, the robotic limb can avoid obstacles and hop over pebbles and sand. In addition, the design is capable of high jumps and rapid movements without the help of complex sensors.
The leg also uses much less energy than motor-powered greece phone number resource robots, the researchers report. They add that while the technology is still in its infancy, it could open up new possibilities for future humanoid robots with artificial muscles.
The study, authored by doctoral students Thomas Büchner and Toshihiko Fukushima, will be published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
What are artificial muscles?
The robotics sector has attracted a lot of investor attention this year, with Goldman Sachs predicting that the humanoid robot market will reach $38 billion by 2035.
European startups working on humanoid robots include the Norwegian startup 1X and the Swiss startups (branches of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) ANYbotics, which is creating a four-legged robot for industrial use, and Mimic, which is developing robotic arms with artificial intelligence.
But scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems believe that, unlike conventional robotic limbs, the leg moves in a similar way to how humans and animals do in real life. It has muscles that flex and extend, allowing it to move in both directions.
