Soft robots can do things that humans, and more conventional robots, cannot do. One of the objectives behind soft robotics is to create machines that are adaptable and more animal-like in their ...

In this Force Robot, tension cables loop around driveshaft capstans and wrap the “wings” of the arc-shaped linkages. When a motor drives the capstan, the cables transmit torque to the linkage. The ...

Scientists often look to the natural world for inspiration and ideas when creating synthetic materials. Plants and animals can rapidly respond to changes in the environment. An example is the way a ...

Scientists at Johannes Kepler University (JKU) have created steerable soft robots that are capable of running, swimming, and jumping at high speeds. During testing, the robots achieved a speed of 70 ...

Roboticists have long turned to nature for inspiration, but their creations have generally been conspicuously un-lifelike. Now, breakthroughs in the design and manipulation of soft materials have ...

Although soft robotic graspers may be squishy on the outside, they usually still have hard, unyielding electronic components on the inside. A new and potentially more versatile bio-inspired grasping ...

A research team in South Korea has developed a highly durable, eco-friendly robot technology where the entire system, including its electronic components, is 100% biodegradable and turns into compost ...

When you think of robots that were modeled after animals, a brittle star is probably not the first species that comes to mind. Still, this is the animal that inspired [Zach J. Patterson] and his ...

A Case Western Reserve University researcher has turned the origami she enjoyed as a child into a patent-pending soft robot that may one day be used on an assembly line, in surgery or even outer space ...