Inflatable Robotic Arm Inspires Design of Disney's Latest Character
From: Medical Design Technology - 10/30/2014

"Big Hero 6," set to light up movie screens November 7th, is an
action-packed, comedy-adventure which features Baymax, a gentle robot
designed to care for humans.

At Carnegie Mellon, researchers are proving that soft robots can do real work
while developing technologies, such as artificial muscles, touch sensors, and
pressure-sensitive skins, that will make them practical.

It was a project within the National Science Foundation-sponsored Quality of
Life Technology Center, which adapts robotic technology to meet the needs of
the elderly and people with disabilities, so they were particularly curious
to learn whether an arm of balloons could do work that required a high degree
of safety - giving a patient a sponge bath, for instance, or feeding a
patient.

Siddharth Sanan used cables to actuate the limbs of his robot, while
designing pneumatically controlled hands. He demonstrated that the inflatable
arm could indeed rub a washcloth against his body or maneuver a spoon into
his mouth.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2014/10/inflatable-robotic-arm-inspires-design-disneys-latest-character

Links:
Quality of Life Technology Center
http://www.cmu.edu/qolt/

Soft Robotics and Bionics Lab
http://softrobotics.cs.cmu.edu/