Soft Robotics

Things can get very chaotic on the ocean floor, making it difficult for underwater robots to keep from being swept away. New research, however, suggests that by copying the structure of the starfish, they could actually be pressed into place.

Although soft robotic graspers may be squishy on the outside, they usually still have hard, unyielding electronic components on the inside. A new and potentially more versatile bio-inspired grasping system, however, is 100 percent soft.

Soft-bodied robots move via pneumatic "muscles" that are selectively inflated or deflated. And while the muscles themselves may be soft and squishy, they're usually hooked up to hard, unwieldy pumps. A new pump, however, is both small and flexible.

Soft robots are gaining a lot of attention in research circles, and from an engineering lab at the University of California, San Diego comes an interesting new example of this technology in the form of a robot that can move without any electronics.

There are currently a number of groups developing touch-sensitive electronic skin for robots. Scientists at Cornell University are pursuing a simpler approach, however, using shadow-imaging cameras to let robots know when they're being touched.

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.

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a new soft robot that can walk at roughly the speed of a human, activated by light and magnetic fields. The robot can squeeze into tight spaces and pick up, carry and release objects on demand.

A team in Australia has tapped into the world of biomimicry to build a new type of robotic gripper modeled on an elephant’s trunk that has the ability to pick up and release objects even when they’re tucked away in confined spaces.

Materials that can heal themselves after becoming damaged have opened up some interesting new possibilities over the past decade or so, and a newly developed example inspired by squid ring teeth is claimed to act faster than most.

Generally speaking, robotic "hands" vary between rigid devices with a firm grasp, and softer, gentler gadgets that are a bit wimpier. Now, however, scientists have created an appendage that they claim combines the best features of both.

A team of researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have drawn inspiration from a tiny tentacled marine creature to produce a centimeter-scale robot that is powered by magnets and light.

By turning to the paper-based art form of kirigami for inspiration, a team of Harvard researchers has developed a system for programmable balloons that can take of all kinds of “crazy” shapes when inflated.