February AMP_Digital

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 9 7 9 STRESS RELIEF SPRIGHTLY GECKOS SPRINT ON WATER Geckos are famous for their athletic movements, but the new dis- covery that they can run on water puts them in the superhero category according to biology professor Robert Full of the University of California, Berkeley. “They can run up a wall at a meter per second, they can glide, they can right themselves in midair with a twist of their tail, and rapidly invert under a leaf running at full speed. And now they can run at a meter per second over water. Nothing else can do that; geckos are superheroes,” he says. According to Full, who discovered many of the unique strategies geckos employ—including how their toe hairs help them climb smooth vertical surfaces and hang from the ceiling—the findings could help im- prove the design of robots that run on water. Geckos appear to combine several techniques for sprinting across water: surface tension, slapping and paddling movements, water-repellant skin, and swishing their tail for propulsion as well as lift and stabilization. berkeley.edu. NEW PORSCHE SPORTS NATURAL-FIBER BODY PARTS Three years after the premiere of the first Cayman GT4 Clubsport, Porsche has now unveiled its successor—the new 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport. For the first time, the car is available in two versions from the factory, a “Trackday” model for amateur racing and a “Competition” style for national and international racing. In developing the vehicle, the focus was not only on improved drivability and faster lap times, but also on the sustain- able use of rawmaterials. The 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport is the first-ever production race car to feature body parts made of natural-fiber composite material. The doors and rear wing are made of an organic fiber mix, sourced primarily from agricultural byproducts such as flax or hemp fibers and featuring similar properties to carbon fiber in terms of weight and stiffness. www.porsche.ca . BACH TO THE FUTURE A new robot hand developed by University of Cambridge researchers was made by 3D printing soft and rigidmaterials together to replicate all the bones and ligaments—but not the muscles or tendons—in a human hand. Even though this limited the robotic hand’s range of motion compared to a human hand, the team found that a surprisingly wide range of movement was still possible by relying on the mechanical design. Using “passive” movement in which the fingers cannot move independently, the robot was able to mimic different styles of piano play- ing without changing the material or mechanical properties of the hand. These findings could help inform the design of robots that are capable of more natural movement with minimal energy use. “Smart mechanical design enables us to achieve the maximum range of movement with minimal control costs. We wanted to see just how much move- ment we could get with mechanics alone,” says researcher Josie Hughes. Over the past several years, soft components have begun to be integrated into robotics design due to advances in 3D printing techniques, which allows scientists to add complexity to these passive systems. Despite the limitations of the robot hand, the team says their approach will drive further research into the underlying principles of skeletal dynamics to achieve complex movement tasks, as well as learning where the limitations for passive movement systems lie. www.cam.ac.uk . Robot hand playing the piano. Courtesy of Josie Hughes. Geckos run on water by slapping the surface rapidly and keeping their bodies from sinking by using surface tension. Courtesy of PolyPedal Lab/UC Berkeley. 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Courtesy of CNWGroup/Porsche Cars Canada.