Think of a robot and you probably think of something hard, metal, solid. Bang into one and it would hurt! But researchers are inventing soft robots, ones that are either completely squidgy or have squidgy skins.
Researchers often copy animals for new ideas for robots and lots of animals are soft. Some have no bones in them at all nor even hard shells to keep them safe: think slugs and octopuses. And the first soft robot that was “fully autonomous”, meaning it could move completely on its own, was called Octopod. Shaped like an Octopus, its body was made of silicone gel. It swam through the water by blowing gas into hollow tubes in its arms like a balloon, to straighten them, before letting the gas out again.
Soft, squidgy animals are very successful in nature. They can squeeze into tiny spaces for safety or to chase prey, for example. Soft squidgy machines may be useful for similar reasons. There are plenty of good reasons for making robots soft, including
- they are less dangerous around people,
- they can squeeze into small spaces,
- they can be made of material that biodegrades so better for the planet, and
- they can be better at gently gripping fragile things.
Soft robots might be good around people for example in caring roles. Squeezing into small spaces could be very useful in disaster areas, looking for people who are trapped. Tiny ones might move around inside an ill person’s body to find out what is wrong or help make them better.
Soft robotics is an important current research area with lots of potential. The future of robotics may well be squidgy.
– Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London
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This page and talk are funded by EPSRC on research agreement EP/W033615/1.
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