Robotics

Soft, multi-functional robots get really small

Roboticists are envisioning a future in which soft, animal-inspired robots can be safely deployed in difficult-to-access environments, such as inside the human body or in spaces that are too dangerous for humans to work, ...

Robotics

Giving robots goosebumps and spikes to show emotion

A team of researchers at Cornell University has begun exploring the idea of adding tactile sensation as a means for interacting with robots. To that end, they have created a robot skin that can produce goosebumps or spikes ...

Robotics

Snake-inspired robot uses kirigami to move

Who needs legs? With their sleek bodies, snakes can slither up to 14 miles-per-hour, squeeze into tight space, scale trees and swim. How do they do it? It's all in the scales. As a snake moves, its scales grip the ground ...

Robotics

Researchers develop a new type of soft, growing robot

Imagine rescuers searching for people in the rubble of a collapsed building. Instead of digging through the debris by hand or having dogs sniff for signs of life, they bring out a small, air-tight cylinder. They place the ...

Robotics

Mimicking biological movements with soft robots

Designing a soft robot to move organically—to bend like a finger or twist like a wrist—has always been a process of trial and error. Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied ...

Robotics

No batteries required: The first autonomous, entirely soft robot

A team of Harvard University researchers with expertise in 3D printing, mechanical engineering, and microfluidics has demonstrated the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot. This small, 3D-printed robot—nicknamed ...

page 6 from 20