Spiders were used as a basis for recycling because spiders’ legs only have one flexor muscle that pulls the leg inward, which is opposed by a hydraulic system: a chamber in the center of the spider’s body (called a prosoma) that pushes out fluid to open the leg, and with the help of separate valves, the animal can control both the parties independently. This is why spiders always curl up when they die, there is no pressure in the system to resist the leg muscles.
Armed with this knowledge, the Rice University team discovered that they could operate this hydraulic system artificially, simply by inserting a needle into the dead spider’s prosoma and blowing air in and out of the spider’s legs, opening them like a spider’s claws. slot machine.
A grappling robot arm made of spider corpses
Engineer Daniel Preston said in edge to me
Spiders can lift more than 130 percent of their body weight and run 1,000 open and close cycles before their joints wear out.
A team led by Faye Yap, a graduate student at Rice University, has published a study describing their work in the journal Advanced Science. In this they noticed that
Humanity has been reusing the remains of dead organisms for a long time
From animal skins worn as clothing to bones sharpened to arrowheads and tools. In this context, turning a dead spider into a robot gladiator is not as strange as it might seem at first glance.
Scientists also note that robotics often draw inspiration from nature for their designs, such as copying the fists of geckos’ paws or the ripples of fish tails.
The concept of masquerades proposed in this work makes use of unique combinations created by nature that are difficult or even impossible to artificially replicate.
– They explained in the study that the trick here is complete “stealing”, not just copying.
