It is safe to say that 3D displays do not necessarily occur in nature – unless one considers the cephalopod, which includes the squid and octopus, as a living 3D display which can morph its... Read more
New MIT system of contracting fibers could be a boon for biomedical devices and robotics. As a cucumber plant grows, it sprouts tightly coiled tendrils that seek out supports in order to pul... Read more
Over the last 15 years, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas and their international colleagues have invented several types of strong, powerful artificial muscles using materials... Read more
Artificial muscles made from polymers can now be powered by energy from glucose and oxygen, just like biological muscles. This advance may be a step on the way to implantable artificial musc... Read more
Picture a tiny, makeshift muscle that can curl a 20 milligram suspended weight when exposed to light. Under the right conditions, another mix packs enough power to bench-press a dime. Resear... Read more
Unusual property of the ultrastrong material could be harnessed for twisting or pulling motions. Spider silk, already known as one of the strongest materials for its weight, turns out to hav... Read more
A new material developed by CU Boulder engineers can transform into complex, pre-programmed shapes via light and temperature stimuli, allowing a literal square peg to morph and fit into a ro... Read more
A short electric pulse is all it takes to generate and release a powerful vacuum in the blink of an eye. The novel vacuum gripper developed by the research team led by Professor Stefan Seele... Read more
Scientists are one step closer to artificial muscles. Orthotics have come a long way since their initial wood and strap designs, yet innovation lapsed when it came to compensating for muscle... Read more
In the basement of the Engineering Center at CU Boulder, a group of researchers is working to create the next generation of robots. But instead of the metallic droids you may be imagining, t... Read more
Origami-inspired muscles are both soft and strong, and can be made for less than $1 Soft robotics has made leaps and bounds over the last decade as researchers around the world have e... Read more
Scientists at Nagoya University have developed a new way to make stimuli-responsive materials in a predictable manner. They used this method to design a new material, a mixture of carbon nan... Read more
MIT engineers find a simple and inexpensive new approach to creating bending artificial muscle fibers Artificial muscles — materials that contract and expand somewhat like muscle fibers do —... Read more
In recent years, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas and colleagues at the University of Wollongong in Australia have put a high-tech twist on the ancient art of fiber spinning,... Read more
Imagine a polymer with removable parts that can deliver something to the environment and then be chemically regenerated to function again. Or a polymer that can lift weights, contracting and... Read more
