(July 5, 2012) Using
piezoelectric materials, researchers have replicated the muscle motion of the
human eye to control camera systems in a way designed to improve the operation
of robots. This new muscle-like action could help make robotic tools safer and
more effective for MRI-guided surgery and robotic rehabilitation.
Key to the
new control system is a piezoelectric cellular actuator that uses a novel
biologically inspired technology that will allow a robot eye to move more like
a real eye. This will be useful for research studies on human eye movement as
well as making video feeds from robots more intuitive. The research is being
conducted by Ph.D. candidate Joshua Schultz under the direction of assistant
professor Jun Ueda, both from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical
Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
“For a robot to be truly bio-inspired, it should possess
actuation, or motion generators, with properties in common with the musculature
of biological organisms,” said Schultz. “The actuators developed in our lab
embody many properties in common with biological muscle, especially a cellular
structure. Essentially, in the human eye muscles are controlled by neural
impulses. Eventually, the actuators we are developing will be used to capture
the kinematics and performance of the human eye.”