Researchers design 'soft' robots that can move on their own: Using sensors, actuators and artificial muscle, robots could be used in medicine, rescue and defense

Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering, said potential applications range from surgery and rehabilitation to search and rescue in natural disasters or on the battlefield. Because the robot body changes shape in response to its surroundings, it can slip through narrow crevices to search for survivors in the rubble left by an earthquake or bombing, he said. "They sense the change in environment and adapt to slip through," he said. These soft robots, made of soft artificial muscle and ultrathin deformable sensors and actuators, have significant advantages over the traditional rigid robots used for automation and other physical tasks. The researchers said their work, published in the journal Advanced Materials, took its inspiration from nature.