DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF by Maryanne Kane, Journalist
D A ILY INNOVATION BRIEF By Journalists Edward Kane & Marya nne Kane MIT SCIENTISTS CREATE MUSCLES FOR ROBOTS Source: MIT & Stock A team of scientists at MIT have created lab grown muscles for grafting onto robots. This appears to be a breakthrough in the effort to develop robots that mimic humans. Here are some key facts: Scientists at MIT CSAIL along with Harvard's Wyss Institute have created origami-inspired artificial muscles for soft robots The muscles add strength and "superpowers" to the robots With the muscles, the robots are able to lift objects 1000-times their weight 1 of the team's 2.6 gram muscles can lift a 3-kilogram object - that's the equivalent of a duck lifting a car It takes 10 minutes to make the muscle Requires less than $1.00 worth of material They're cheap and easy to test and replicate The team says they can coat robots with the muscles They say the muscle