Most robots are built out of solid materials like metal and plastic, giving them rigid structures that are easy to work with and understand. But you can open up much wider possibilities if you explore alternative materials and construction methods. As it turns out, that’s precisely what [Jesse T. Gonzalez] specializes in.
Jesse is a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, and an innovator to boot. His talk at the 2023 Hackaday Supercon covers his recent work on making circuit boards that can breathe and bend. You might not even call them robots, but his creations are absolutely robotic.
Be Flexible
Jesse has a section of “wall” in his apartment that can shift and change into different useful shapes.
Jesse begins by teaching us about robotic surfaces. He shows us a demonstration video, in which a metal ball is juggled around on a silicone bubble surface. Typically, we might model robot actuation in our heads as involving simple grippers on the ends of industrial robot arms, but that’s a limiting view. As the demo shows, even a surface itself can be robotic, and can be used to generate textures or manipulate objects, for example.
In his own apartment, Jesse has taken this idea a step further—creating the idea of a robotic environment. At his home, he walks in the door and is greeted by his robotic wall, which extends out to create a shelf for his shopping. Another part of the wall ste ..
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