Robotics

Using bundles of fibers, robots mimic nature

Octopus tentacles can move in many directions, but also form stiff joint-like structures for more precise movements. Caterpillars can travel by using inchworm movements, as well as coil up and propel themselves away from ...

Robotics

Soft components for the next generation of soft robotics

Soft robots driven by pressurized fluids could explore new frontiers and interact with delicate objects in ways that traditional rigid robots can't. But building entirely soft robots remains a challenge because many of the ...

Robotics

Water-driven soft actuator developed

Sea cucumbers have a bumpy and oblong shape. They are soft but stiffen up quickly when touched. They can shrink or stretch to several meters, and their original shape can be recovered even after they die and shrivel up with ...

Robotics

Researchers build a fast-moving jumping soft robot

Buckling, the sudden loss of structural stability, is usually the stuff of engineering nightmares. Mechanical buckling means catastrophic failure for every structural system from rockets to soufflés. It's what caused the ...

Robotics

RoboBee powered by soft muscles

The sight of a RoboBee careening towards a wall or crashing into a glass box may have once triggered panic in the researchers in the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and ...

Robotics

These new soft actuators could make soft robots less bulky

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a way to build soft robots that are compact, portable and multifunctional. The advance was made possible by creating soft, tubular actuators whose movements ...

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