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.
Electronics & Semiconductors
In recent years, many engineers have been trying to develop hardware components that could emulate the functions of various biological systems, including synapses, the human skin and nerves. These bio-inspired systems include ...
Robotics
A team of mechanical engineers at Beihang University, working with a deep-sea diving specialist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a mechanic from Zhejiang University, all in China, have designed, built, and tested ...
Robotics
Engineers have designed robots that crawl, swim, fly and even slither like a snake, but no robot can hold a candle to a squirrel, which can parkour through a thicket of branches, leap across perilous gaps and execute pinpoint ...
Mar 19, 2025
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Electronics & Semiconductors
Prototyping large structures with integrated electronics, like a chair that can monitor someone's sitting posture, is typically a laborious and wasteful process.
Mar 18, 2025
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58
Engineering
The phrase "robotic exosuit" likely calls to mind something metallic, rigid, and hinged—Iron Man's suit or the dozens of other, similar apparatuses that appear on screen, in video games, and even on the red carpet.
Mar 17, 2025
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Robotics
We move thanks to coordination among many skeletal muscle fibers, all twitching and pulling in sync. While some muscles align in one direction, others form intricate patterns, helping parts of the body move in multiple ways.
Mar 17, 2025
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71
Robotics
Locomotion, the ability to move from one place to another, is an essential survival strategy for virtually every organism. Adapting to the unpredictable terrain they run into, cells, fungi and microorganisms autonomously ...
Mar 12, 2025
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Engineering
Miniaturized pumps and valves that rely on the motion of dielectric elastomeric silicone films are being created in Saarland, Germany. Not only are these devices lightweight, compact and energy-efficient, but they also work ...
Mar 12, 2025
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Robotics
Empa researchers are working on producing artificial muscles that can keep up with the real thing. They have now developed a method of producing the soft and elastic yet powerful structures using 3D printing.
Mar 11, 2025
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100
Engineering
Scientists say they have developed a new AI-assisted model of a digital twin with the ability to adapt and control the physical machine in real time.
Mar 10, 2025
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