3 Robotic Arms Lose To 17-Year-Old Girl In Arm Wrestling Match
The three robot teams, two from the US and one from Switzerland, brought their robotic arms to Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conference in San Diego, California. Each team was hoping to have there devices stand up to the world’s strongest man in a wrestling match. So in moving towards that goal, they started the contest against a slightly weaker opponent, a 17-year-old girl named Panna Felsen. Although Panna calls herself a weakling, she managed to defeat each arm in a matter of seconds.
Despite her lack of strength, training and technique, she was able to conquer the first arm, developed by Environmental Robots Inc. from Albuquerque, New Mexico, in just 24 seconds. Following this, and a pep talk from an arm wrestling expert, it took her just four seconds to beat the second arm and three seconds for her to win the last match.
Two champion arm wrestlers oversaw the matches to ensure that standard arm wrestling rules were observed. The three robot teams are now trying to work out what went wrong.
It is obvious that the new technology used in this contest needs to mature a bit before the ultimate goal can be reached. EAP artificial muscles, the technology used in this contest, are special plastics that can change shape when activated either electrically or with chemicals.
Nevertheless, the drive to develop EAP artificial muscles is unlikely to be deterred by this setback because of the need to overcome the current limitations with existing actuators and motors.
Electric motors tend to be too weak, while hydraulics and pneumatics are too heavy for use in robotics or prosthetics. EAPs, in comparison are lightweight, quiet and capable of energy densities similar to biological muscles.
The three robot teams, two from the US and one from Switzerland, each used different types of EAPs for their arms. The Virginia Tech group had three sets of chemically activated muscles acting on the shoulder joint, triggered by hydrochloric acid which caused the EAP strands to contract. Unfortunately, as it turned out, it only started to work a few minutes after its match had ended.