Scientists use dead spiders to create robotic claws

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As a characteristic quality of their anatomy, spiders have a hydraulic system inside their body that allows them to control their limbs.

A team of mechanical engineers from Rice University in the United States say it is possible to harness this system and control the movements of dead spiders, using their bodies to create mechanical pincers.

“Necrobotic” spiders used as mechanical pincers

Viewed from a mechanical perspective, a spider’s body functions in much the same way as soft robots. Unlike most animals, which use their muscles to move their limbs, spiders use a different system, based on hydraulic principles. They have a chamber dedicated to this function, called the prosoma, located near the head, which is capable of regulating the blood pressure of the entire body, extending its limbs when it increases.

spider graphic

Source: Preston Innovation Laboratory/Rice University

Scientists on this project, who call their current area of ​​research “necrobotics,” use a needle to touch the prosome chamber of a previously euthanized spider using a needle. Next, they are responsible for closing the contact area with an insulating glue, to finally use a syringe to administer the necessary air pressure.

Through a video in which the developed system is put to the test, it was shown that these “necrobotic” tweezers are capable of lifting more than 130% of their own weight.

During laboratory tests, this system was subjected to a thousand cycles of opening and closing, to verify how well it supported its limbs, concluding that it was quite robust. “Starts to experience some wear as we get closer to 1000 cycles”, said Daniel Preston, Rice researcher and professor involved in this project. “We think it is related to joint dehydration problems. We think we can overcome that by applying polymeric coatings”he added.

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The proposed use for this development focuses mainly on the manipulation of other objects. “There are a lot of pick-and-place tasks that we could look at, repetitive tasks like sorting or moving objects at these small scales, and maybe even things like microelectronics assembly.”Preston said. Complementing the idea, Faye Yap, senior researcher, added that “another application could be to implement it to capture smaller insects in the wild, because it is inherently camouflaged.”

A report detailing further aspects of this study was featured in a recent publication by Advanced Science.