Initial story on
armwrestling.com
ARM WRESTLING HUMAN AGAINST A ROBOT WITH ARTIFICIAL MUSCLE
The futuristic idea of armwrestling between a human and a robot with artificial muscles seems to be closer that we think. This challenge is going to be taken on by researchers and engineers as part of the annual international conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) that is part of the SPIE Smart Structures Symposium. The technology of artificial muscles is still in its emerging stages but the increased resources, the growing number of investigators conducting research related to EAP, and the improved collaboration among developers, users, and sponsors are leading to a rapid progress. In 1999, the Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, JPL, posed a challenge to the worldwide research and engineering community to develop a robotic arm that is actuated by artificial muscles to win an arm wrestling match against a human opponent. Progress towards this goal will lead to significant benefits, particularly in the medical area, including effective prosthetics. Decades from now, EAP may be used to replace damaged human muscles, potentially leading to a "bionic human." A remarkable contribution of the EAP field would be to one day see a handicapped person jogging to the grocery store using this technology.
United States ArmSports is committed to work with Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen in this endeavor using our resources of over 40 years in the sport of armwrestling. We will actually set up a contest between one or more of our champions and the Robot. Announcements will be made as we progress to the event.
Results of the initial
contest
Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen
The futuristic idea of armwrestling between a human and a
robot with artificial muscles finally have taken place in San Diego, CA, on
March 7, 2005. This challenge was taken on by three research groups
during the 2005 international conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuators
and Devices (EAPAD) that is part of the SPIE Smart Structures Symposium.
The technology of artificial muscles is still in its emerging stages but the
increased resources, the growing number of investigators conducting research
related to electroactive polymers (EAP), and the improved collaboration among
developers, users, and sponsors are leading to a rapid progress. In
1999, the Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, JPL, posed a challenge to the worldwide
scientists and engineers to develop a robotic arm that is actuated by
artificial muscles to win a wrestling match against a human opponent.
The three wrestling matches was held against Panna Felsen, a 17-year old
student. With guidance from Allan Fisher, a professional wrestler who
represented the US ArmSports, Panna won all the matches where one of the
robotic arms managed to hold for 26-seconds. To appreciate the value of
this historic accomplishment, one can get a better prospective when
remembering that the first flight took only 12-seconds.
Progress towards meeting this armwrestling challenge will lead to significant
benefits, particularly in the medical area, including effective prosthetics.
Decades from now, EAP may be used to replace damaged human muscles,
potentially leading to a "bionic human." A remarkable
contribution of the EAP field would be to one day see a disabled person
jogging to the grocery store using this technology.
Using our resources of over 40 years in the sport of armwrestling, United
States ArmSports supported Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen in the recent
competition Further, we intend to continue to be committed to work with
him in this endeavor as advances are made towards one day to hold contests
between one or more of our champions and the developed Robots.
Announcements will be made as progress is made towards holding such an event.
The Table for the Armwrestling Competition:
A standard Armwrestling table was brought to the competition by Dave Devoto who is a pioneer and leading representative of the United States ArmSports
AMERAH Competition Judges
The following are the members of the AMERAH organization Committee and the Competition Judges.
CHAIR: Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader, JPL's NDEAA Lab.
Dave Devoto - Pioneer and leading representative of the United States ArmSports
Richard Landon - from Stan Winston Studio (SWS designed and created the robots and makeups for Spielbergs movie AI). Mr. Landon wrote chapter 6 in the Biologically Inspired Intelligent Robots book
John D. Madden -Univ. of British Columbia (Canada), Co-chair of the 2005 EAPAD Conference
Joanne Pransky - World's First Robotic Psychiatrist www.robot.md
Brian Thomas - Senior Event Manager, SPIE-- The International Society for Optical Engineering
