Buzz
If you’ve ever placed a flat bag of kernels into the microwave and pulled out a fully puffed bag of popcorn just moments later, you’ve witnessed an intriguing food science phenomenon. Now, IEEE Spectrum shares that scientists are exploring how popcorn’s unique properties can be applied to robotics.
In their research, presented at this year’s IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Cornell scientists filled a robot’s movable components (the actuators) with unpopped corn kernels. Normally, actuators are powered by air, hydraulics, or electric currents, but as the researchers discovered, popcorn offers a low-cost, single-use alternative.
When heat is applied to popcorn kernels, the water inside them turns to steam, building enough pressure to crack open the hard shell and release the starchy endosperm. A sudden drop in pressure causes the endosperm to expand quickly, while the surrounding cooler air solidifies it.
The results are remarkable: When popping the tiniest white kernels, the least expensive popcorn tested, researchers observed them expand up to 15.7 times their original size. Inside a soft robot, this expansion generates interior pressure that moves the actuator in different directions.
A similar effect can be created using air, which, unlike popcorn, can be pumped multiple times. However, popcorn offers significant advantages: it’s cheaper than building air pumps and is biodegradable. As a result, the researchers suggest it as a viable option for robots that are meant to be used once and naturally break down in their surroundings.
You can see how a popcorn-powered robot operates in the video below.
