locomotion

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.

Long before dinosaurs roamed the earth, the oceans were full of creatures known as ammonites. Scientists have now created a number of robotic ammonites, to see how the different shell shapes they evolved affected their movement through the water.

While scientists have already created tight-space-exploring robots based on snakes and cockroaches, rats are also highly adept at squeezing through narrow openings. They now have a robotic equivalent of their own, in the form of the SQuRo.

While we have seen eel-like swimming robots before, they've tended to simply copy the movements of their biological counterparts. AgnathaX is different, in that it utilizes simulated central and peripheral nervous systems for more robust performance.

Paramecium and certain other microbes move through liquid by whipping back and forth hairlike appendages known as cilia. Scientists have now developed a new type of synthetic cilia, which could find use in micro-robots and more.

Inspired by the way plants like Venus flytraps can snap closed and reset themselves, scientists have developed materials that alter their shape in the blink of the eye to propelling themselves forward using their own energy and their environment.

Scientists have observed snakes using an entirely unknown way of getting around. Brown tree snakes in Guam have been spotted climbing objects by wrapping themselves into a never-before-seen “lasso” shape.

Remember those toys that sprang up into the air after you pushed them down? They're called poppers, and they've inspired an actuator that could one day allow soft-bodied robots to jump across rough terrain.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have looked to shore up the mobility and freedom of future planetary rovers with a new design that uses some clever trickery to get itself out of tight spots.

When we think of soft-bodied robots, we tend to picture things that slowly crawl like caterpillars. A new one is able to move much quicker, though, by leaping like a cheetah.

Taking inspiration from the traditional cane, a team of researchers has come up with a LiDAR-enabled robotic assistant which offers light-touch support for the mobility-impaired. Dubbed Canine, the device improves the user's spacial self-awareness, and thus, their walking stability.

​If you're making a 2-mm-long walking robot, it pretty much goes without saying that the thing won't be able to carry much of a battery. That's why Georgia Tech's new "micro-bristle-bots" are instead propelled by vibrations. And someday, they may actually be capable of moving within the human body.