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National Science Foundation-funded engineers have fabricated transparent, gel-based robots that move when water is pumped in and out of them. The bots can perform a number of fast, forceful tasks, including kicking a ball underwater, and grabbing and releasing a live fish. The robots are made entirely of hydrogel--a tough, rubbery, nearly transparent material that’s composed mostly of water.
Each robot is an assemblage of hollow, precisely designed hydrogel structures, connected to rubbery tubes. When the researchers pump water into the hydrogel robots, the structures quickly inflate in orientations that enable the bots to curl up or stretch out.Image credit: Hyunwoo Yuk/MIT Soft Active Materials Lab
