To make robots more efficient, make them more human.
It seems a paradox. After all, robots exist to serve as a more efficient alternative labour force than humans, confined to the limitations of our form and ability as we are. Yet humans and machines share common issues when carrying out manual labour, not the least of which is the impact of the heat generated when our muscles (or motors, in a robot’s case) are put to use.
Humans sweat as a means of managing this heat, but robots are forced to rely on fans and heat sinks, since anyone who has ever dropped their phone in the pool can tell you that water and machines just don’t mix.
Until now.
Kengoro is a 1.7 metre tall, 56kg musculoskeletal humanoid robot designed by a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo’s JSK Lab. Composed of a labyrinth of structural components, and powered by an incredible 108 motors, the team realised that implementing traditional cooling systems would not be enough to keep Kengoro operational. In response, they started looking at ways they could use the robot’s existing framework to deliver coolant throughout the system.
The solution? Distributing water through Kengoro’s skeleton, which then seeps out and evaporates to cool the motors. In essence, Kengoro sweats through his bones.
This passive cooling process is 3x more effective than standard liquid cooling systems, and is made possible because Kengoro’s aluminium frame is designed using a laser sintering technique that allows complete control over the metal’s permeability. These create channels through which the water can run, like tiny rivers surrounding the components, without threat of leakage. A porous surface than covers these channels at key positions, ensuring Kengoro’s sweat always reaches the right locations.
In total, the robot can operate for an entire day on only two cups of deionised water, compared to the approximately 13 cups recommended for a human male counterpart by the Institute of Medicine.
Once again, an answer to a problem that plagues both man and robo-kind has been found, and it is the machines that come out on top.