Squishy Robotics tensegrity sensing unit robotics help first responders identify their method to a disaster scene. Squishy Robotics Inc. establishes impact-resistant, round robots using the principle of tensegrity for applications ranging from disaster action to area expedition. Originally funded by a NASA Early Stage Innovations grant to investigate their mobility in area settings, these robotics distribute effect across their skeletal structure, making them perfect for rough surface or hazardous environments. The robots are customizable with sensors, capable of providing essential information to first responders evaluating risks such as hazardous gas leakages or helping in wildfire detection.
NASAs Fong stated he was pleased to see Agogino was able to spin off the tensegrity robot innovation.
Squishy Robotics tensegrity sensor robots assist initially responders identify their technique to a disaster scene. Visualized here during a subway attack scenario workout at the 2021 Unmanned Tactical Application Conference, the robots can spot gas leaks and other threats. Credit: FLYMOTION LLC
Squishy Robotics Inc. establishes impact-resistant, round robotics using the concept of tensegrity for applications varying from catastrophe action to area expedition. Initially moneyed by a NASA Early Stage Innovations grant to research their mobility in space settings, these robots disperse effect throughout their skeletal structure, making them perfect for rough terrain or dangerous environments. The robotics are adjustable with sensors, efficient in providing vital data to first responders evaluating risks such as hazardous gas leaks or assisting in wildfire detection.
Dr. Alice Agogino was investigating round, skeletal robots that may one day be dropped onto Mars or the Moon to collect information and perform science, when she realized her NASA-funded technology might have terrestrial advantages too.
Checking out a report on the threats and death toll of disaster reaction, Agogino believed her robotics, fitted with the ideal sensing units, could collect data at the scenes of fires, crashes, and other catastrophes to help initially responders examine dangers like hazardous gas leakages and prepare their approach.
We believed, wow, if we can do this on the Moon, we could do it in the world and conserve some lives,” stated Agogino, director of the Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrities Lab at the University of California at Berkeley.
She went on to cofound Berkeley, California-based Squishy Robotics Inc. The company makes impact-resistant, personalized robotics for public security, military, and commercial usages.
A drone carries one of Squishy Robotics tensegrity robots as part of a workout with Southern Manatee Fire and Rescue in Florida. Credit: Southern Manatee Fire and Rescue
Agoginos robots appear like ball-shaped skeletons of rods and elastic cable televisions. She explains the structure as “a stress network”– if a robotic is dropped, the impact is dispersed across the network, dissipating the force, according to the principle of tensegrity.
The term tensegrity– brief for tensile integrity– was coined in the 1960s by designer R. Buckminster Fuller, who popularized geodesic domes, which are likewise tensegrity structures.
For NASA, the ability to withstand the effect of a long drop is especially fascinating, as is the ability of these structures to collapse into a small bundle during travel.
The company awarded Agogino and her UC Berkeley laboratory Early Stage Innovations (ESI) financing in 2014 to research tensegrity robot mobility using gas thrusters.
The $500,000, multi-year, proof-of-concept ESI grants aim to accelerate the advancement of innovative area innovations that have significant potential. The financing is used through the Space Technology Research Grants program, which supports scholastic researchers working on space-related science and technology.
Weighing less than 3 pounds, the stationary robotic can be incorporated with many commercial drones. Credit: Squishy Robotics Inc
. Agogino and her group were developing probes that could drop from a planetary orbit or larger spacecraft, make it through the drop bring delicate sensors, and after that roll and dive over rough surface to perform missions and science on other worlds.
” Think about the Mars Curiosity and Perseverance rovers,” said Terry Fong, primary roboticist in the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASAs Ames Research Center in Californias Silicon Valley.
Fong, who was NASAs technical representative for Agoginos grant, explained that the rovers had to be carefully lowered to Mars surface area with the elaborate Sky Crane system.
” With tensegrity robots, the robot itself is the landing device,” Fong stated. “It might survive a fall from very high up and keep going.”
The tensegrity devices can be folded flat for travel– in truth, thats how Agogino ships robotics to clients. Once they unfurl, the sensing units and instruments are suspended in the center, secured from the impact of a fall.
” So, you save money on throwaway mass,” Fong said. “Its challenging and costly to launch mass into space, so you desire more of it to be used beyond landing, on the surface with clinical instrumentation and other payloads.”
NASA likewise looked into Earth science applications for tensegrity robots, which could keep track of, for instance, a glacier thats about to break off into the ocean.
” Thats the sort of place you would not wish to send out an individual, due to the fact that its very risky,” Fong stated. “The whole surface might collapse. With a structure that might survive a drop however still be mobile later, you would have a very instrument placing system.”
In the world or on other worlds, tensegrity robots offer a simpler way to position fragile instruments into difficult-to-reach locations. Thats the concept behind Squishy Robotics.
Agogino and her team interviewed 300 very first responders in a procedure known as consumer discovery.
For these clients, Squishy Robotics now puts miniaturized chemical gas sensors inside the tensegrity robotic that can be visited aircraft to take readings in a location before firefighters go in. Presently, the business only uses fixed robotics, however Agogino and her team are working on mobile designs.
The data these robotics gather can notify firemens choices about whether to wear harmful material gear, which can add up to an hour of prep time– a hold-up thats just rewarding if its necessary.
Squishy Robotics has actually worked with some of the largest fire departments, including Southern Manatee Fire and Rescue in Florida, the Tulsa Fire Department in Oklahoma, and the San Jose Fire Department in California. The business has actually also established reseller contracts with several suppliers.
Agoginos tensegrity robots might likewise help defuse bombs or keep track of gas and electrical lines.
Wildfire avoidance is another emerging area for Squishy Robotics. Tensegrity robotics might keep track of high-risk locations, help authorities react to reports, and ensure that smaller sized fires have been fully extinguished.
” The early detection of wildfires is crucial,” Agogino says, “since a lot of the wildfires that have ended up being raging firestorms could have been avoided if they had actually been captured early.”
Agogino is now emeritus, having actually retired in December from Berkeley, which allows her to invest more time on Squishy Robotics.
NASAs Fong stated he enjoyed to see Agogino was able to spin off the tensegrity robotic innovation. “We think these robotics could serve unique functions for space,” he said. “She obviously saw a method to likewise have a major effect on Earth.”
NASA has a long history of transferring innovation to the private sector. The companys Spinoff publication profiles NASA technologies that have changed into industrial services and products, demonstrating the wider advantages of Americas investment in its area program. Spinoff is a publication of the Technology Transfer program in NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).
