Havard scientists develop world's first autonomous soft robot

Soft robots, as compared to conventional robots, are quite unique by nature. Former is not composed of rigid materials and functions on microfluid logic.

This is exactly the kind of mechanics a team of Havard University researchers undertook. With expertise in 3D printing, mechanical engineering and microfluidics, they were able to demonstrate the world’s first autonomous, un-tethered and entirely soft, robot.

Nicknamed ‘Octobot,’ it holds the potential to pave the way for a new generation of completely soft and autonomous machines.

Robert Wood, the Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Jennifer A. Lewis, the Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) led the research. Lewis and Wood are also core faculty members of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

“One long-standing vision for the field of soft robotics has been to create robots that are entirely soft, but the struggle has always been in replacing rigid components like batteries and electronic controls with analogous soft systems and then putting it all together,” said Wood. “This research demonstrates that we can easily manufacture the key components of a simple, entirely soft robot, which lays the foundation for more complex designs.”

The robot or rather, the octobot doesn’t seem to do much at the moment. However, this kind of device would definitely help the soft robot technology to gain more prominence.