:00:00. > :00:00.hour. Will keep you up-to-date with all these deliverance. Let's pause
:00:00. > :00:00.for a fume and it's a catch up with the latest technology to bromance.
:00:00. > :00:38.He is clicked. Think robots and maybe you'll
:00:39. > :00:44.picture something like this or this. But what about robotic muscle and
:00:45. > :00:50.smart materials that could act as human skin close that the as you
:00:51. > :00:57.wear them? That is what is cold soft robotics and this team at Bristol
:00:58. > :01:00.Robotics lab our engineering technologies to do all about and
:01:01. > :01:09.more. I went to take a peek their labs. This is a bucket of alien
:01:10. > :01:14.saliva. This is what drips out of the alien mouth. Ridley Scott just
:01:15. > :01:19.used a whole bunch of that. In this case it is to simulate
:01:20. > :01:23.blood. This soft robot mimics how some bacteria move through our
:01:24. > :01:27.bodies was up in the future it is thought that nano robots will take a
:01:28. > :01:33.similar trip to our brains looking for infection and illness.
:01:34. > :01:41.That is awesome. Some of the projects involve making assistive
:01:42. > :01:44.technology are elderly and disabled people like this pneumatic
:01:45. > :01:48.artificial muscle which can be made into any shape and built into
:01:49. > :01:54.clothing. As you apply it changes its shape so it could for instance
:01:55. > :01:58.help people limited grip strength. It is dependent on how much error
:01:59. > :02:04.pressure you apply anti-some material which can sense when that
:02:05. > :02:07.pressure should be applied. This diametric elastomer candidate when
:02:08. > :02:11.it is being stretched so it can sense when you try to move and add
:02:12. > :02:16.extra power to maybe help you up the stairs. And it can not only detect
:02:17. > :02:22.movement, it can change shape when you apply a high enough voltage.
:02:23. > :02:25.You could use it for changeable clothing that contained its colour.
:02:26. > :02:28.You can use us as a sort of second skint to help with deep vein
:02:29. > :02:34.thrombosis and assist with pumping blood. It can even be layered up to
:02:35. > :02:38.create artificial muscles. It does not seem to doing a lot but actually
:02:39. > :02:43.it is very thin and weighs almost nothing. The act apart only ways
:02:44. > :02:46.like say four grams and it can live two kilos. None of this is
:02:47. > :02:52.complicated. None of this is extremely high-tech using billions
:02:53. > :02:57.of transistors. It is simple voltage and a piece of material. I think
:02:58. > :03:01.that is one of the big advantages of soft robotics. Simplicity. In a
:03:02. > :03:04.conjugated robotic system you have a lot of elements that can go wrong
:03:05. > :03:07.and with the sort of things it is very simple and it is very
:03:08. > :03:14.adaptable. The intelligence is in the design and immediately useful
:03:15. > :03:19.rather than the complexity. The Robotics lab in Bristol is a 50,000
:03:20. > :03:24.square feet high of the innovation filled with hundreds of different
:03:25. > :03:30.types of robots but what nearly all have in common is they need power to
:03:31. > :03:33.run. Over in the bioenergy lab scientists are working on one freely
:03:34. > :03:40.available resource the world will never run out of. You're in. Each
:03:41. > :03:45.one of the cylinders is a microbial fuel cell device. It turns waste
:03:46. > :03:50.water into electricity using microbes. So the microbes eat the
:03:51. > :03:56.waste? They each the ways. That is their favourite item on the menu.
:03:57. > :03:59.Essentially. I have been to that restaurant, yeah. Two litres of your
:04:00. > :04:04.lunar spread into the fuel cell power. The microbes eat what they
:04:05. > :04:08.need, creating electrons as a by-product. Because they are
:04:09. > :04:13.attached to an electrode surface it is connected to the dues about 30 to
:04:14. > :04:18.40 minute watts of power. That is enough to slowly charge a smartphone
:04:19. > :04:24.or power internal lights for their special portable toilets. This is
:04:25. > :04:29.one use of many. And we do it out of the lab, when we install these units
:04:30. > :04:34.out of the lab we have many more of them connected together as a stack.
:04:35. > :04:39.If you are going to Glastonbury this year is you might see these screens
:04:40. > :04:43.near the finals and if you choose to use the rhinos then you'll be part
:04:44. > :04:52.of an experiment which is literally putting the P into power. These are
:04:53. > :04:59.displays which don't require a lot of power but a lucky few may be able
:05:00. > :05:04.to charge their phones for a bit. It only after donating. Most of the P
:05:05. > :05:08.used here comes from staff donors at the lab. His only good for the
:05:09. > :05:19.microbes for an hour or so saw constant supplies needed. Although,
:05:20. > :05:23.I think I'll hang on. Welcome to the week in Tech. It was the week that
:05:24. > :05:33.Goober refounded customers for journeys taken near last Saturday
:05:34. > :05:42.night's terror attacks after surging demand. Upload is launching a voice
:05:43. > :05:47.controlled speaker. The comment section on Britney Spears's Insta
:05:48. > :05:53.gram account has been used by Russian speaking hackers. If you
:05:54. > :05:58.think this is a sensible way to go out, anyone with kids can tell you
:05:59. > :06:05.what it is like trying to get play dough out of the carpet but Serbia
:06:06. > :06:11.do not have a new gadget to tell you about for that.
:06:12. > :06:17.This aims to help kids learn about light, sound and movement to play.
:06:18. > :06:25.And finally, researchers at MIT have developed sensors for robotic arms
:06:26. > :06:29.that aim to help bots grab things with the right amount of pressure.
:06:30. > :06:32.The aim to make negotiating smaller objects possible as well as making
:06:33. > :06:37.general household tasks easier to approach. This would be handy if one
:06:38. > :06:45.day robot are to become ordinary household companions.
:06:46. > :06:48.Around the world scientists are looking at different ways of
:06:49. > :06:53.improving our quality-of-life Auster pierces alternate sources of power.
:06:54. > :07:03.Soft robotics, and possibly in future bionic limbs. But in Italy's
:07:04. > :07:08.liability at other things. They are looking at simulating
:07:09. > :07:10.touch. Researchers are trying to merge
:07:11. > :07:15.human physiology machine engineering. The team are working on
:07:16. > :07:22.a bionic fingertip that is capable of detecting texture. The human
:07:23. > :07:28.sense of touch is incredibly complex one. I don't even need to look at
:07:29. > :07:38.these three pieces of plastic to sense the differences in the ridges.
:07:39. > :07:52.How do you transfer that same sensitivity into a prosthetic hand?
:07:53. > :08:00.Fingertips have a higher concentration thanks to 20,000 nerve
:08:01. > :08:38.fibres on each finger. It registers textures its touches as
:08:39. > :08:41.spikes. On-screen it may look simple but that is exactly the language
:08:42. > :08:47.that our nervous system speaks as we touch objects, it sends nerve
:08:48. > :08:52.impulses to the brain. The tiny subtle variations in how the skin
:08:53. > :08:58.deforms as it is touched changes those impulses and how we perceive
:08:59. > :09:01.texture. This capitalises on the natural
:09:02. > :09:06.principle and so can be more effective as humans and animals in
:09:07. > :09:09.general can now interact with the environment.
:09:10. > :09:15.The professor and his team have already had some success. Dennis was
:09:16. > :09:18.one of the first amputee to try out the bionic fingertip. The output
:09:19. > :09:23.from the finger was directly connected to the healthy nerves in
:09:24. > :09:31.his upper arm. I could tell the difference between the way it was
:09:32. > :09:37.very rough and smooth. Yet, that was amazing. Since those first clinical
:09:38. > :09:42.trial cup of years ago the team have been trying to increase the number
:09:43. > :09:50.of textures that patients can feel. The experiments that were showing
:09:51. > :10:00.now are strengthening the capability to tell silk from cotton, wool from
:10:01. > :10:05.different kinds of materials. And in this way we can restore a more
:10:06. > :10:09.natural sense of touch to the amputee that is wearing the press he
:10:10. > :10:12.says. What is learnt it can be transferred
:10:13. > :10:15.to other applications, for example a surgical robot can use this
:10:16. > :10:20.technology to identify tumours which would feel different and texture to
:10:21. > :10:24.healthy tissue. Another kind of application is for
:10:25. > :10:31.rescue, so to allow robots to be present in the environment not only
:10:32. > :10:33.to listen, but to add more sensors available when exploring and
:10:34. > :10:39.environment. Think example of a nuclear disaster, so in the case of
:10:40. > :10:45.underwater application the robot can go and touch and perceive the
:10:46. > :10:51.environment based on the sensory feedback that you can have remotely
:10:52. > :10:55.controlling the robot. Once this technology is mastered it
:10:56. > :10:58.can be integrated into simple things like gloves so for instance, I could
:10:59. > :11:04.be anywhere in the world, my husband back in New York can give me the
:11:05. > :11:08.sensation of petting our cat and that would be transferred through
:11:09. > :11:15.these actuators to me anywhere in the world. I want it right now.
:11:16. > :11:19.I can't give you that at the moment but in the meantime how about a hug
:11:20. > :11:23.from this chap? That's it for the short cut of kick from this week.
:11:24. > :11:27.The full-length version is on IP right now. Next week we're going to
:11:28. > :11:36.Los Angeles for the annual video games extravaganza. Is going to be
:11:37. > :11:37.tweaking every thing that we seem. Follow us on Facebook. Thanks for
:11:38. > :11:48.watching.