Soft robotics

Three side-by-side copies of a shape consisting of multiple colored squares

A system for designing and training intelligent soft robots

“Evolution Gym” is a large-scale benchmark for co-optimizing the design and control of soft robots that takes inspiration from nature and evolutionary processes.

December 7, 2021

Photo of a robotic arm brushing a manequin's long, brown hair

A robot that can help you untangle your hair

Robotic arm equipped with a hairbrush helps with brushing tasks and could be an asset in assistive-care settings.

May 5, 2021

MIT researchers have created a “sensorized” skin, made with kirigami-inspired sensors, that gives soft robots greater awareness of the motion and position of their bodies.

“Sensorized” skin helps soft robots find their bearings

Flexible sensors and an artificial intelligence model tell deformable robots how their bodies are positioned in a 3D environment.

February 12, 2020

An MIT-invented model efficiently and simultaneously optimizes control and design of soft robots for target tasks, which has traditionally been a monumental undertaking in computation. The model, for instance, was significantly faster and more accurate than state-of-the-art methods at simulating how quadrupedal robots (pictured) should move to reach target destinations.

How to design and control robots with stretchy, flexible bodies

Optimizing soft robots to perform specific tasks is a huge computational problem, but a new model can help.

November 22, 2019

Depiction of a soft robotic device known as a dynamic soft reservoir (DSR)

Soft robotics breakthrough manages immune response for implanted devices

Discovery could enable longer-lasting and better-functioning devices — including pacemakers, breast implants, biosensors, and drug delivery devices.

September 4, 2019

Using its undulating tail and a unique ability to control its own buoyancy, SoFi can swim in a straight line, turn, or dive up or down.

Soft robotic fish swims alongside real ones in coral reefs

Made of silicone rubber, CSAIL’s “SoFi” could enable a closer study of aquatic life.

March 21, 2018

The Nereis virens worm inspired new research out of the MIT Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics. Its jaw is made of soft organic material, but is as strong as harder materials such as human dentin.

Worm-inspired material strengthens, changes shape in response to its environment

A bio-inspired gel material developed at MIT could help engineers control movements of soft robots.

March 20, 2017

MIT researchers outfitted their cube robot with shock-absorbing “skins” (left) that transfer less than half of the energy that would normally be transferred to the ground.

3-D-printed robots with shock-absorbing skins

By “programming” customized soft materials, CSAIL team can 3-D print safer, nimbler, more durable robots.

October 3, 2016

This 3-D hexapod robot moves via a single motor, which spins a crankshaft that pumps fluid to the robot’s legs. Besides the motor and battery, every component is printed in a single step with no assembly required.

First-ever 3-D printed robots made of both solids and liquids

System from Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab 3-D prints hydraulically-powered robot bodies, with no assembly required.

April 6, 2016

A new soft robotic gripper from MIT can estimate the size and shape of an object accurately enough to identify it from a set of multiple items.

Soft robotic hand can pick up and identify a wide array of objects

Team from Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab develops silicone rubber gripper and advanced object-identification algorithms.

September 30, 2015

The CSAIL team's rubber robotic arm moves using pressurized air that causes it to change shape like a balloon.

Will tomorrow’s robots move like snakes?

Made completely of rubber, CSAIL team's robotic arm can slither through “pipes.”

September 15, 2014

Andrew Marchese, doctoral candidate in EECS, holds a soft robotic fish developed by the Distributed Robotics Laboratory.

Soft robotic fish moves like the real thing

A new robotic fish can change direction almost as rapidly as a real fish.

March 13, 2014

Soft autonomous robot inches along like an earthworm

Flexible design enables body-morphing capability.

August 10, 2012

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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