“ONE day you could find yourself sitting in a bar next to a humanoid robot, who is taking a shot of vodka to give himself the energy to go to work.” So says Ray Baughman, a nanotechnologist at the University of Texas at Dallas, who has developed self-powered artificial muscles that could ultimately be used in robotic limbs and prosthetics.
Baughman and his colleagues have designed two types of artificial muscle by adapting fuel cells so that the power source is part of the muscle itself, rather than coming from a separate battery.
The first is made from a nickel-titanium…
