Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am writing in to the authors of the paper on HASEL artificial muscles (hereby referred to as the “HASEL paper” in this post)[1] I covered recently. Let’s get started!
How to Present Myself?
The HASEL paper was dense. I probably understood around 80-90% of it if I’m being generous. It’s an exciting, new technology, but I’m left with questions – questions that might send me looking elsewhere for parts if things don’t work out. I’m writing in.
But how do I present myself? I’m not representing some big company with a finished design; I’m a computer blogger with a dream at best and a wannabe entrepreneur at worst. I have a negligible following, I’ve never bothered to make sure my comments section works, and the default potted cactus theme from 2017 is still staring anyone down who visits.
At the same time, I’m more serious than a random Joe trying to look a little deeper into a novel idea before moving on. I dare say I’m more serious than the average hobbyist looking for a challenging project because I’m already thinking past the “it’s done, that was fun” stage. I want to see my robot out in the world, helping people.
The Letter
To the authors of HASEL Artificial Muscles for a New Generation of Lifelike Robots—Recent Progress and Future Opportunities or whomever it may concern:
I am a computer blogger with three and a half years experience working with Linux. I am presently conceptualizing an untethered robotic system primarily aimed at adept to expert hobbyists. I’ve read your paper, and I believe HASEL actuators show enough promise to warrant serious consideration for my project.
My goal for a version 1.0 is to produce an 18-20 inch tall quadrupedal social robot that doesn’t reach out to the Internet for its basic functions, like speech. By open sourcing the design, users can more easily service their robots and customize them to add character. Adventurous users could assemble their own units from kits containing pre-made artificial muscles, custom circuit boards, and –optionally– 3D printed bones or other parts they can otherwise manufacture at home.
If successful, I dream of the platform being upscaled as large as a miniature horse and serving in a similar capacity to service animals for people with disabilities. If the price can be kept in check, it may even be competitive against the cost of training a new companion animal every number of years. Where an animal might carry a general information card, a robot with an onboard conversation engine could communicate pertinent information in the case of a personal crisis: “My handler is fine. Please leave him alone until he sits up,” “Help! My handler requires XYZ assistance, but is unable to speak.”
A strong point of HASEL actuators I was drawn towards was the possibility of rapid prototyping techniques, but a notable part of the draw vanishes if I cannot prototype shell shapes out of my home lab – even if I expect to need professionally manufactured muscles as I move out of early testing and eventually into release/production. Do you have or plan to make any instructional material on how to develop a schematic which Artimus Robotics can manufacture?
My biggest concern is the operational voltage reported in the paper. Some strategies were proposed to mitigate risk, but are recent developments enough to lower the voltage for a product as described above? If not, do you expect the next 5-10 years will bring sufficient progress?
Shadow_8472
letsbuildroboticswithshadow8472.com
As of writing, I have not sent this letter in e-mail form or otherwise. Only when I sat down to start my write up did I think to instead contact Artimus Robotics (I just realized it’s spelled different than the Greek goddess so no help from spell check). Their site [2] even has a contact page I only laid eyes on last minute as I went to dig up an e-mail address I remember seeing in the HASEL paper.
Takeaway
While attending university, I tried contacting the man behind another exciting robotics technology for a research paper. No response. I don’t want a repeat, and they’ve presented a better method to facilitate first contact. It’s just the information in my now open letter will need to be spread out for the different format. I’ll do a follow up soon if things work out.
Final Question
Have you ever tried writing in to a company?
Works Cited/Mentioned
[1] P. Rothemund, N. Kellaris, S. Mitchell, E. Acome, and C. Keplinger “HASEL Artificial Muscles for a New Generation of Lifelike Robots—Recent Progress and Future Opportunities” Nov. 2020 Advanced Materials vol. 33, issue 19, May 13, 2021 Available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202003375. [Accessed: June 6, 2021]
[2] Artimus Robotics. Accessed: June 28, 2021. Available: https://www.artimusrobotics.com.