Tech & Biz

iRobot to Develop "Soft Robots"

by Jordan Yerman | June 18, 2008 at 12:03 pm

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iRobot, of Roomba fame, is developing a robot that can squeeze into openings smaller than its default dimensions would normally allow.

“During military operations it can be important to gain covert access to denied or hostile space,” said Dr Mitchell Zakin of DARPA, suggesting that the squashy machines are intended to penetrate physical security covertly.

“We believe that a new class of soft, flexible, meso-scale mobile objects that can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than their dimensions to perform various tasks will be quite valuable".

What would the requirements of such a project entail?

DARPA requires that the final $3.3m prototype machine:

Travel a distance

Traverse an arbitrary-shaped opening much smaller than the largest characteristic dimension of the ChemBot

Reconstitute size, shape, and functionality after traversing the opening

Travel a distance again

Perform a function using the embedded payload

The first thing that came to mind was the rat: nature's perfect infiltrator. It can climb, squish, squeeze, and shimmy into just about anywhere it wants.

On the civilian side, this could be a great upgrade for the Roomba: finally it could get behind that couch.