Robotics

Chameleon's tongue strike inspires fast-acting robots

Chameleons, salamanders and many toads use stored elastic energy to launch their sticky tongues at unsuspecting insects located up to one-and-a-half body lengths away, catching them within a tenth of a second.

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 ...

Robotics

A tiny soft robot that mimics jellyfish

A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems has developed a soft robot that effectively mimics a tiny jellyfish. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes ...

Robotics

Robot circulatory system powers possibilities

Untethered robots suffer from a stamina problem. A possible solution: a circulating liquid—"robot blood"—to store energy and power its applications for sophisticated, long-duration tasks.

Robotics

Researchers create 3-D-printed soft mesh robots

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created 3-D-printed flexible mesh structures that can be controlled with applied magnetic fields while floating on water. The structures can grab small objects and carry ...

Robotics

Researchers develop 'soft' valves to make entirely soft robots

In recent years, an entirely new class of robot—inspired by natural forms and built using soft, flexible elastomers—has taken the field by storm, with designs capable of gripping objects, walking, and even jumping.

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