Newly engineered slinky-like strain sensors for textiles and soft robotic systems survive the washing machine, cars and hammers. Think about your favorite t-shirt, the one you've worn a hundred times, and all the abuse you've put it through. You've washed it more times than you can remember, spilled on it, stretched it, crumbled it up, maybe even singed it leaning over the stove once. We put our clothes through a lot and if the smart textiles of the future are going to survive all that we throw at them, their components are going to need to be resilient. Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed an ultra-sensitive, seriously resilient strain sensor that can be embedded in textiles and soft robotic systems. The research is published in Nature.

A Yale researcher has created a'robo-skin' that could bring toys to life. Called'OmniSkin,' the flexible elastic can be fitted to stuffed toys and a variety of inanimate objects and, thanks to sensors and actuators, enable them to move. The robot'skin' can be programmed to turn almost any object into a robot, depending on how the elastic sheets are applied, or how many are applied at a time. Yale roboticists created'robo-skin' that can be affixed to almost any object. The robo-skin is made out of flexible, elastic sheets.

Inspired by our bodies' sensory capabilities, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed a platform for creating soft robots with embedded sensors that can sense movement, pressure, touch, and even temperature. The research is published in Advanced Materials. "Our research represents a foundational advance in soft robotics," said Ryan Truby, first author of the paper and recent Ph.D. graduate at SEAS. "Our manufacturing platform enables complex sensing motifs to be easily integrated into soft robotic systems." Integrating sensors within soft robots has been difficult in part because most sensors, such as those used in traditional electronics, are rigid. To address this challenge, the researchers developed an organic ionic liquid-based conductive ink that can be 3D printed within the soft elastomer matrices that comprise most soft robots.

Researchers at Harvard University have built soft robots inspired by nature that can crawl, swim, grasp delicate objects and even assist a beating heart, but none of these devices has been able to sense and respond to the world around them. Inspired by our bodies' sensory capabilities, researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a platform for creating soft robots with embedded sensors that can sense movement, pressure, touch, and even temperature. The research is published in Advanced Materials. "Our research represents a foundational advance in soft robotics," said Ryan Truby, first author of the paper and recent Ph.D. graduate at SEAS. "Our manufacturing platform enables complex sensing motifs to be easily integrated into soft robotic systems." Integrating sensors within soft robots has been difficult in part because most sensors, such as those used in traditional electronics, are rigid.