Soft Robotics

Scientists at the University of Illinois have come up with a biohybrid robot that can be propelled by a mix of motor neurons, muscular tissue and light.

Researchers have developed ultra-gentle robotic grippers that can grasp and release jellyfish and other very soft marine animals without harming them.

If you build a soft robot, you don't want to put rigid actuators inside. With that in mind, scientists have created pliable artificial muscles.

By turning advanced cameras to capture legless larvae in action, scientists have gained a new understanding of their ability to leap through the air, including an ability to form what they call a "transient leg."​

​We’ve seen robots that can respond to touch and voice commands, but what about a robot with a sense of taste? A new experimental device is built to explore this possibility, and in its current form can already perform a little taste test to see if its bathwater has been contaminated.​​

​Although we've seen a lot of robots designed to deliver packages to people's homes, most of those bots are stymied by houses' front steps. Tokyo-based Amoeba Energy is developing a solution, in the form of a tracked robot that uses soft foam to easily climb up stairs and over other obstacles.

Last year, a Harvard team revealed a snake-inspired soft robot that harnessed the ancient Japanese art of kirigami to create pop-up scales that allowed the robot propel itself along as it stretches and contracts. Now some tweaks have given the robot boosts in both speed and precision.

​​From green blobs to boa constrictors, scientists have taken inspiration from some interesting sources in pursuit of robotic arms that can delicately lift heavy items. The latest solution from MIT resembles a venus flytrap in the way its snatches up objects many times its own weight.

​Caterpillars are able to crawl across a wide variety of surfaces, they can move in any orientation, and they're flexible – traits that would also make for good soft-bodied robots. With that in mind, scientists have recently taken an interesting approach to analyzing just how the creatures move.

If robots are ever going to work alongside humans in the real world, they're going to need a softer touch. Harvard researchers have developed a new method for producing small-scale squishy robots, and demonstrated it by creating a flexible robotic peacock spider, driven by a microfluidics system.

​Back in 2010, researchers from Cornell University helped develop a robotic gripper that was stuffed with coffee grounds. Now, a Cornell team has done the next logical thing, and built soft-bodied robotic devices that are filled with and activated by popcorn.

​If you're trying to catch delicate creatures such as sea slugs via remote control, you're certainly not going to use steel pincers designed for use in the oil and mining industries. It was with this in mind that a Harvard team recently developed an underwater robotic gripper that has a soft touch.