Remember Baymax, the lovable character from Disney’s Big Hero Six?
King Louie the inflatable robot has a lot of his features — soft, totally inflatable, run by pneumatics and very kid-friendly.
The soft robot is built by Brigham Young University mechanical engineers with funding and support from NASA.
King Louie is made of a fabric and its interior is similar to that of a bike tire, with inner chambers and tubing. He is also completely deflatable, which means he can shrink for easy storage. That is a must for NASA who are in constant need of engineering solutions that can fit in tight spaces.
“Our soft-robotics research is about making robots that are safer around people,” said BYU robotics researcher Marc Killpack, a professor of mechanical engineering. “Traditionally, robots are pretty dangerous so there are lots of places we think soft robots have some nice applications.”
“And because he is completely inflatable, he can’t hurt you,” said student Dustin Kraus. He is safe in homes and in space.
Article Source: BYU
