Researchers at Rice University have created “necrobotic” spiders from their carcasses. Yes. Rice University is using the dead remains of spiders to create tiny claw machines.
“Spiders are amazing. They’re useful even when they’re dead,” says the Rice University website.
Researchers have repurposed dead spiders as “mechanical grippers,” perfect for blending into natural environments to pick up objects, like other insects that overtake them.
“It happens to be the case that the spider, after death, is the perfect architecture for small-scale, naturally derived pincers,” said Daniel Preston of Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering .
“This area of soft robotics is really fun because we use unexploited types of actuators and materials.
“The spider falls into that line of research. It’s something that hasn’t been used before but has a lot of potential.”
Fun fact that influences this research: Spiders use the hydraulic system to move their limbs, while other animals synchronize opposing muscles to move. They have no muscle pairs, only flexor muscles.
Blood is pumped through the spiders’ limbs to force them to extend from a chamber near their heads. When the pressure is not there, the legs contract. This explains why they move so robotically, and also why they curl up when they die.
The specific spiders used are wolf spiders, capable of lifting more than 130 percent of their own body weight.
To get the spiders to stretch and contract on command, the researchers inserted a needle into the hydraulic chamber of the “prosoma” with superglue to make the needle stick. Air was pumped through a syringe into the hydraulic chamber, which extended and contracted the limbs on command.
Image: Preston Innovation Laboratory, Brandon Martin, Rice University
During the tests, the researchers had the spider shell manipulate a circuit board, lift another spider, and move objects. After the first 1,000 cycles, some wear was noticed, which the researchers described as dehydration in the joints.
Future research will likely involve smaller spiders, and useful applications of this could include small and delicate capture operations, such as in electronics or moving small objects. Channels are also inherently camouflaged, so they could be useful for catching small insects.
Also, as if it needed to be said, spiders are biodegradable. It’s also another great example of soft robotics and it’s exciting to see where it will go.
I can only hope that my corpse is treated as practically as the corpses of these spiders. When I die, it turns my whole body into a claw machine.
You can read the research on necrobot spiders at Advanced Science.