Liquid robot can transform, separate and fuse like living cells
A joint research team has successfully developed a next-generation soft robot based on liquid. The research was published in Science Advances.
Mar 24, 2025
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Robotics
Page 29: Research news on Bioinspired soft robotics
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
Artificial nerve with organic transistor design shows promise for brain-machine interfaces
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 marine robot that can swim, crawl and glide untethered in the deepest parts of the ocean
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
A squirrel-inspired robot that can leap from limb to limb
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
Electromechanical building blocks enable rapid prototyping of large interactive structures
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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Engineering
Soft, air-filled 'muscles' power a new robotic exosuit
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
Artificial muscle flexes in multiple directions, offering a path to soft, wiggly robots
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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Robotics
'Odd' objects excel at navigating challenging terrains without central control
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
Pumps and valves made from ultrathin elastomeric films are lightweight and energy efficient
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
Developing 3D-printed soft material actuators that can mimic real muscles
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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