Unlike traditional robots, which rely on rigid motors, gears, and pumps, soft robots use pliable materials that allow them to bend, stretch, and interact safely with humans and delicate environments.

Until now, when scientists and engineers have developed soft robots inspired by organisms, they’ve focused on modern-day living examples. For instance, we previously reported on soft robot ...

One day, robots might navigate through your blood vessels to break up clots, deliver targeted chemotherapy or repair ruptured blood vessels more efficiently and effectively than existing tools, ...

While there are many potential uses for soft-bodied robots, the things are still typically only built in small experimental batches. Scottish scientists are out to change that, with a ...

When disaster strikes and buildings collapse, every second counts for emergency responders searching for survivors trapped beneath rubble. Traditional tools often fall short in these dangerous, ...

A new type of shape-shifting robot can amputate its leg to free itself from tricky situations. The robot is the brainchild of a group of engineers at a lab in Connecticut. The robot itself is ...

Soft robots that power themselves from their surroundings are moving from lab curiosity to strategic technology, promising machines that can swim the deepest oceans, survive the vacuum of space, and ...

A team of researchers has created smart, advanced materials that will be the building blocks for a future generation of soft medical microrobots. These tiny robots have the potential to conduct ...

Most animals can quickly transition from walking to jumping to crawling to swimming if needed without reconfiguring or making major adjustments. Most robots cannot. But researchers at Carnegie Mellon ...

When you hear the term 'robot,' you might think of complicated machinery working in factories or roving on other planets. But 'millirobots' might change that. They're robots about as wide as a finger ...