Write an essay analyzing the relationship between hydraulic machines and spiders.
(1) Scientists are turning dead spiders into robots. It's part of a new
field called necrobotics. Scientists take materials that were once parts
of living things. Then, they use the materials for robot parts.
(2) In July, scientists reported that they turned dead spiders into a claw.
They could make the spiders pick up items and drop items. The spider
robots worked like an arcade claw machine.
A Lot Like Hydraulic Machines
(3) Faye Yap got the idea when she saw a dead spider in her lab. Yap
works at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She's a mechanical
engineer. These scientists study motion and the properties of materials.
They design, build and test devices. Yap wondered: Why do spiders
curl up when they die? (4) The answer has to do with hydraulics. This is the study of how fluids behave when in motion. A fluid is any material that can flow. It can be a liquid or a gas, like air. Hydraulic machines use fluid under pressure to lift, push, pull and move. Pressure is the amount of force applied to an area in a liquid or gas. A force is a push or pull. (5) Spiders are like hydraulic machines. They move by pushing fluid around their bodies. For spiders, that fluid is blood. They stretch their legs by forcing blood into them. A dead spider has no blood flow. So its legs curl up. (6) "We were just thinking that was so cool," said Yap. She and her team sometimes work on grippers. So they decided to try using a dead spider to make one. A New "Life" As A Gripper (7) Yap's team first tried to make the spider move using heat. They thought warming up the spiders would make the legs push out. That didn't work. (8) The team's second try used a syringe. The scientists injected air straight into the spider's body. And it worked! They could control the spider's grip. Air made the spider's legs open.
Image 1. An illustration shows the process by which Rice University mechanical engineers turn deceased spiders into necrobotic grippers, able to grasp items when triggered by hydraulic pressure. Graphic: Preston Innovation Laboratory/Rice University (9) They used it to move small objects. One spider lasted hundreds of tests. After that, the spider bodies started to dry out. For the next tests, scientists will cover the spiders with a sealant. This will keep the spiders from drying out. (10) Yap has bigger goals. She wants to learn more about how the spiders work. Right now, the spider's legs move at the same time. Yap wants to control the legs one at a time. She thinks it will help people design better robots.
