An artificial muscle computer

We have built an artificial muscle computer based on Wolfram's “2, 3” Turing machine architecture, the simplest known universal Turing machine. Our computer uses artificial muscles for its instruction set, output buffers, and memory write and addressing mechanisms. The computer is very slow and large (0.15 Hz, ∼1 m3); however by using only 13 artificial muscle relays, it is capable of solving any computable problem given sufficient memory, time, and reliability. The development of this computer shows that artificial muscles can think—paving the way for soft robots with reflexes like those seen in nature.