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If you really think about it, a lot of the
technology that we use on a daily basis can be traced back
to natural structures: a door hinge (which is like a hinge
joint), a jet ski (uses jet propulsion like a cuttlefish),
a diver (uses flippers like a fish)…
And what about machinery? Very often large
industrial machines use mechanisms that may at some point
have been based upon the way our joints work. Diggers use
pistons, which create a push-pull action similar to the way
an arm works. But there is a major difference between the
way that a piston works and the way our joints work. What
do you think this difference is?
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Trying to copy the way our bodies move using machinery
is a pretty tricky task: our bodies are amazing machines
and trying to reproduce muscles, nerves, tendons and
bones in the same complicated network would be an amazing
thing to do!
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Launch it ...
Have a go at moving Shifty
the Robot to find out just how hard it is to move
machinery. |
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The field of technology has attempted to
copy the way our joints move; for medical purposes this would
benefit a great many people, for instance people who are paralyzed
could move again, people with damaged or lost limbs could
have replacement limbs. Technology is advancing rapidly, with
exoskeletons
being developed, as well as robotic
limbs. What does the future hold?
How
are engineers learning from the human body? Find out more
in the Big Questions.
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