First Soft Untethered Robot Developed

First Soft Untethered Robot Developed

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A team of Harvard University researchers has demonstrated the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot. This small, 3-D-printed robot — nicknamed the “octobot” — could pave the way for a new generation of such machines designated for various uses.

According to Harvard’s website, soft robotics could help revolutionize how humans interact with machines.

Researchers have struggled to build entirely compliant robots. Electric power and control systems — such as batteries and circuit boards — are rigid, and until now soft-bodied robots have been either tethered to an off-board system or rigged with hard components.

“Through our hybrid assembly approach, we were able to 3-D print each of the functional components required within the soft robot body, including the fuel storage, power, and actuation, in a rapid manner,” said researcher Jennifer A. Lewis. “The octobot is a simple embodiment designed to demonstrate our integrated design and additive fabrication strategy for embedding autonomous functionality.”

Harvard’s octobot, inspired by nature’s flexible octopuses, is pneumatic-based, and so is powered by gas under pressure. A reaction inside the bot transforms a small amount of liquid fuel (hydrogen peroxide) into a large amount of gas, which flows into the octobot’s arms and inflates them.

Next, the Harvard team hopes to design an octobot that can crawl, swim, and interact with its environment.

They hope that their approach for creating autonomous soft robots inspires roboticists, material scientists, and researchers focused on advanced manufacturing.