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Robotics

Generation soft

Nature volume 536, pages 400–401 (2016)Cite this article

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Meet the octobot, the first robot to be made entirely from soft materials. Powered by a chemical reaction and controlled by a fluidic logic circuit, it heralds a generation of soft robots that might surpass conventional machines. See Letter p.451

Robots are typically used in manufacturing contexts that involve well-structured environments. These situations allow them to move following predefined procedures, limiting interactions with human operators for safety reasons. But if these machines were moved into 'real' environments outside factories, they would have to cope with uncertain situations, react and adapt to changing conditions, and interact safely with living organisms, including humans1 — tough problems to solve using conventional technology made from hard materials. Robots made from soft, deformable materials2 would be better able to grasp and manipulate unknown objects, and to move on unstructured and rough terrains, and might be less hazardous to people. On page 451, Wehner et al.3 present the first robot that completely lacks rigid structures and control systems.

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Figure 1: The octobot.

L. K. Sanders, R. Truby, M. Wehner, R. Wood & J. Lewis/Harvard Univ.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Barbara Mazzolai and Virgilio Mattoli are at the Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 56025 Pontedera, Pisa, Italy.

    Barbara Mazzolai & Virgilio Mattoli

Authors
  1. Barbara Mazzolai
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  2. Virgilio Mattoli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barbara Mazzolai.

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Mazzolai, B., Mattoli, V. Generation soft. Nature 536, 400–401 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/536400a

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