Bioinspired soft robotics investigates compliant robotic systems that emulate the mechanics, morphology, and control strategies of animals and other biological organisms. The field develops artificial muscles, soft actuators, and mechanical metamaterials using polymers, hydrogels, liquid crystal elastomers, and textile or origami-based structures to achieve muscle-like motion, shape morphing, and adaptive stiffness. It spans scales from sub-millimeter microrobots to larger soft-bodied platforms, integrating sensing, flexible electronics, and biohybrid components for autonomous locomotion, manipulation, and interaction in complex environments, particularly in aquatic and terrestrial settings.
Robotics
Researchers have developed a soft robotic skin that enables vine robots that are just a few millimeters wide to navigate convoluted paths and fragile environments. To accomplish this, the researchers integrated a very thin ...
Oct 15, 2025
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Robotics
From sorting objects in a warehouse to navigating furniture while vacuuming, robots today use sensors, software control systems, and moving parts to perform tasks. The harder the task or more complex the environment, the ...
Oct 15, 2025
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Engineering
A research team affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a new type of artificial muscle that can seamlessly transition from soft and flexible to rigid and strong—much like rubber transforming into steel. When contracting, this ...
Oct 13, 2025
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Engineering
Researchers have created a polymer "Chinese lantern" that can snap into more than a dozen curved, three-dimensional shapes by compressing or twisting the original structure. This rapid shape-shifting behavior can be controlled ...
Oct 10, 2025
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Robotics
Like octopuses squeezing through a tiny sea cave, metatruss robots can adapt to demanding environments by changing their shape. These mighty morphing robots are made of trusses composed of hundreds of beams and joints that ...
Oct 1, 2025
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Robotics
Fidget poppers are an example of "bistability," as the popped circles rest in one of two stable states. Purdue University researchers have taken this idea to its extreme, building robots that can be preprogrammed and controlled ...
Sep 30, 2025
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Robotics
Could the future of rescue missions and exploration lie in the hands—or rather, the flexible movements—of a swarm of lightweight, soft, and intelligent robots? Imagine swarms of soft-bodied robots working with the coordinated ...
Sep 29, 2025
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Robotics
Imagine tiny robots zipping across the surface of a lake to check water quality or searching for people in flooded areas. This technology is moving closer to reality thanks to work by researchers at the University of Virginia's ...
Robotics
In 2021, a group of scientists from China engineered the RoboFalcon—a bird-inspired flapping-wing robot with a newly engineered mechanism made to drive bat-style morphing wings capable of flight. While this bio-inspired robot ...
Electronics & Semiconductors
In brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and other neural implant systems, electrodes serve as the critical interface and are core sensors linking electronic devices with biological nervous systems. Most currently implanted electrodes ...
Sep 17, 2025
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