A team from Harvard University presents an advance in soft robotics. Using multimaterial 3D printing, they have created structures that integrate polymers with different physical properties. These robots can alter their shape and function upon receiving specific stimuli, without the need for motors or traditional rigid parts.
The key lies in the multimaterial 3D-printed architecture ??
The technique allows depositing rigid, elastic, and shape-memory materials into a single complex structure. The spatial arrangement of these polymers defines how the robot will deform in response to a stimulus, such as a change in temperature or pressure. Thus, movements like crawling, grasping, or swimming are programmed directly into the material's morphology, without embedded electronics.
No more excuses: now the robot also adapts to the environment ??
It's an interesting approach. If a conventional robot fails, we say the environment wasn't suitable. These new soft robots solve the problem at its root: if the environment is challenging, they simply transform. Soon we'll see the first robot that, faced with a difficult task, adopts the shape of a ball and rolls to the darkest corner of the lab. Pure 3D-printed evasion strategy.