Soft Robots On The Way?

The technology that could make Baymax a reality is being developed right now.

12:11 07 April 2015

Baymax, a character from Disney’s Oscar-winning animated Big Hero 6, is a fictionalised version of soft robots that could become a reality once the needed technology is already developed. 

 

Professor Chris Atkeson who helped filmmakers ensure that the movie was based on real technology, said: "If you want to comb someone's hair or brush their teeth you really want a robot that's not going to hurt them, even if the computer crashes.”

 

"So for me, soft robotics is building computers that are inherently safe."

 

Dr Adam Stokes from the University of Edinburgh is a specialist in soft robotics and says they have many potential uses: "For things where you're moving inside the body, where you have forceps for example and you're moving tissues apart."

 

He added: "By having a machine that is soft, that can gently move in the environment and interact with it safely, then you can remove some of the control elements that you would need for conventional hard robotics systems."

 

Soft robots could be designed to help people with disability or restricted movement. But most importantly, they can help making people less uncomfortable when working with machines. 

 

"It's about showing that robots aren’t necessarily these scary, hard machines," says Dr Stokes.

 

"It’s moving robots into something where people will be interested in interacting with them and they'll feel safe interacting with them.

 

"That will really help to move robotics into the mainstream."