Robotics

In order for a soft-bodied robot to be practical, it has to be simple, light and energy-efficient, yet still reasonably quick. A newly developed mechanism fits the bill, and it's inspired by the humble hair clip.

Plastic ketchup bottles have a valve in the lid that opens to let ketchup out, and that "sputters" if the bottle is squeezed too hard. Scientists have copied that mechanism to create an actuator that could be used in autonomous soft robotic devices.

Scientists regularly draw ideas from the natural world in a bid to improve robotic performance, and the latest creation in this space is a soft robot that mimics butterfly stroke in humans to move through the water with unparalleled speed.

If you were trying to gauge the reaction force of an insect's leg, you couldn't just push it with your finger – the size difference between the two would be too great. A set of hand-controlled soft robotic microfingers, however, can get the job done.

It was just this week that we heard about the SPD1, a spider-inspired robot designed to inspect sewer lines. Well, it looks like the bot won't be alone down there, as the recently announced Joey robot is designed to do exactly the same thing.

According to Japanese robotics firm TMSUK, there's currently a shortage of sewer-inspection workers in that country. The company has therefore set out to streamline the workload for existing workers, by making a sewage-pipe-inspecting robotic spider.

Luxonis has launched a hackable, open-source roving robot called rae that packs AI processing and machine learning, depth-sensing cameras, app control and fun RGB lighting into a pint-sized package designed "for every age, and every skill level."

Researchers have developed an ultra-small, ultra-thin LiDAR device that splits a single laser beam into 10,000 points covering an unprecedented 180° field of view. It's capable of 3D depth-mapping an entire hemisphere of vision in a single shot.

Last year, Hong Kong's MangDang gave programmers the chance to own a small hackable four-legged robot named the Mini Pupper, a kind of baby Spot. Now the team has returned to Kickstarter with a much-improved second generation robo-dog.

The flexible "fingers" at the tip of an elephant's trunk have provided the inspiration for a robotic gripper capable of picking up and holding onto a variety of objects both large and small – from a thin acupuncture needle to a large packaging box.

Folks with a soft touch seem to have no problem getting to grips with delicate objects, but it can be a tough ask for robots. Researchers have taken a strength-in-numbers approach with a gripper that curls multiple tubes around a fragile object.

Imagine if there were a robotic fish that filtered microplastic particles out of the water as it swam. Well, now there is one, and it's the physical version of the winning concept in the first-ever Natural Robotics Contest.

It often seems that soon after a new type of scientific or industrial robot is unveiled, a hobbyist model follows. First, there were the Bittle and Mini Pupper miniature quadrupeds – now, there's the XR R1 hexapod.

The tiny Pacific mole crab (Emerita analoga) has a unique talent, in that it can burrow straight down into the sand using its flexible legs. An experimental new robot copies that capability, and it could actually have some practical applications.

Clone Robotics is going to impressive lengths to make sure its "intelligent androids" will have some of the most human-like hands in the business, and watching the way their hydraulic "muscles" move under a transparent skin is absolutely hypnotic.