New robotic arms can't beat humans in arm wrestling, but at least they're trying

• Six years ago, Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher Yoseph Bar-Cohen challenged scientists to create an artificial arm that could beat a human in an arm-wrestling match.
• The catch: The arm must be made of a pliable plastic material controlled by electrical impulses.
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• Even if they had worked, the devices wouldn't have been ready for arm-wrestling competitions on ESPN: One relied on a potentially dangerous hydrochloric acid reaction, while another was powered by a strong electric current.
• It could mean the transformation of robots from large, clunky, motor-driven devices -- think of the robot arm that helped put together your car -- into sleek, sturdy, self-contained machines.
• "There could be some point where you can have a robot dog, not walking like a machine, but walking like a dog," said Bar-Cohen, a tireless advocate for the technology.
• Bar-Cohen and others expect that the artificial muscles will revolutionize prosthetics, allowing disabled people to more easily move their limbs.
• For now, though, Ben-Cohen's dream muscles -- all made from plastics known as electroactive polymers -- are fairly primitive.
• Panna Felsen, a San Diego-area high-school student, took 24 seconds to push down the arm, which was controlled through power leads connected to two artificial muscles.
• The final team, engineering students from Virginia Tech, used fishing lines to connect a fiberglass arm to several tubes holding gel fibers.
• Richard Landon, who helped create the special effects for AI and the Jurassic Park movies, said technological advances could revolutionize his industry, allowing fake human characters -- or, say, velociraptors -- to free themselves from motors and look more natural.