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
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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Electronics & Semiconductors
An artificial neuron made of conductive plastics that can perform advanced functions similar to those of biological nerve cells has been demonstrated by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. The results, published ...
Sep 17, 2025
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Robotics
Marine litter is a major environmental problem around the world. As part of the EU project SEACLEAR, a research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed an autonomous diving robot that can detect ...
Sep 17, 2025
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Robotics
The body movements performed by humans and other animals are known to be supported by several intricate biological and neural mechanisms. While roboticists have been trying to develop systems that emulate these mechanisms ...
Engineering
Think twice about eliminating those pesky ants at your next family picnic. Their behavior may hold the key to reinventing how engineering materials, traffic control and multi-agent robots are made and utilized, thanks to ...
Sep 15, 2025
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