Engineers have successfully figured out a way to provide robots with intricate commands without the use of electricity for the very first time. This breakthrough could potentially create additional space for robots to process information within their ‘brains’.
By imitating the functions of certain human body parts, researchers from King’s College London have conveyed a sequence of commands to devices using an innovative type of compact circuit that relies on changes in fluid pressure within it.
They believe this pioneering achievement paves the way for a new type of robotics, enabling robots to operate independently from their usual control systems. This could allow the robots’ processing units to be utilized for more advanced AI-driven software.
“By distributing tasks among different body parts, we increase the computational capacity of robots, letting future models become more socially aware or even more agile. This could lead to advancements in robotics for fields like social care and manufacturing,” explained Dr. Antonio Forte, a Senior Lecturer in Engineering at King’s College London and one of the lead authors of the research.
The findings, which were shared in Advanced Science, might also foster the development of robots capable of functioning in environments where electric-powered devices fail, such as exploration in radioactive zones like Chernobyl, which can damage circuits, or in areas sensitive to electricity like MRI rooms.
Researchers are optimistic that these robots could ultimately be deployed in low-income nations lacking reliable electricity access.
Dr. Forte mentioned: “To put it plainly, robots consist of two components: the brain and the body. While an AI brain might manage city traffic, many robots still face challenges with basic tasks like opening a door—what’s the reason for this?”
“While software has rapidly progressed, hardware development has lagged behind. By establishing a hardware framework that operates independently from the software, we can relieve a significant amount of the computational pressure on the software, similar to how your brain doesn’t need to instruct your heart to beat.”
At present, all robots depend on electricity and computer chips for operation. A robotic ‘brain’ composed of algorithms and software translates data to the physical components through an encoder, which then executes actions.
In the realm of ‘soft robotics,’ which includes creating devices like robotic muscles from flexible materials, this dependence is especially problematic as it forces the integration of rigid electronic encoders and places heavy demands on the software to enable the materials to perform intricate tasks like grasping a door handle.
To overcome this issue, the team devised a flexible circuit equipped with an adjustable valve that can be integrated into a robot’s hardware. This valve functions similarly to a transistor in standard circuits, allowing engineers to transmit signals directly to the hardware using pressure changes, replicating binary code. This method allows robots to execute complex movements without requiring electricity or central brain commands, leading to enhanced control compared to existing fluid-based circuits.
By shifting the burden of processing from the software to the hardware, the new circuitry opens up opportunities for future robotic systems to become more flexible, sophisticated, and practical.
Looking forward, the researchers aim to enhance their circuits from experimental setups like hoppers and pipettes to larger robotic platforms, including crawlers used to survey power plants and wheeled robots equipped with fully soft power systems.
Mostafa Mousa, a postgraduate researcher at King’s College London and co-author, emphasized: “If there is no investment in embodied intelligence, the development of robots will stagnate. Without offloading the computational tasks that modern robots are burdened with, further algorithmic improvements will have minimal effects on their efficiency. Our research marks the initial phase of this journey, yet it promises a future with more intelligent robots featuring advanced functionalities.”
