The technique allows them to analyze the workings of superconductivity, a condition in which electrons are conducted with no resistance. The United States has few young scientists who are experts in neutron scattering, while European institutions are training more researchers in the field, Dr. Broholm noted. Dr. Chirikjian's work deals more with applied science but suffers no lack of creativity. One of his robot designs is an 8-foot, snakelike binary robotic arm. Powered by compressed air and controlled by a computer, the three pneumatic pistons driving the arm can manipulate it into 33,000 positions.
Binary manipulators have the potential to be very inexpensive.
They were expensive and limited in what they could do. He foresees versions of the arm being used to slither through a nuclear reactor to detect leaks, pluck a wayward satellite from space or inch through arteries during surgery. Let someone else build big complicated systems.