Related papers: Towards Physarum robots: computing and manipulatin…

Soft slender structures are ubiquitous in natural and artificial systems and can be observed at scales that range from the nanometric to the kilometric, from polymers to space tethers. We present a practical numerical approach to simulate…

Nature apparently does a lot of computation constantly. If we can harness some of that computation at an appropriate level, we can potentially perform certain type of computation (much) faster and more efficiently than we can do with a von…

This paper presents a soft earthworm robot that is capable of both efficient locomotion and obstacle avoidance. The robot is designed to replicate the unique locomotion mechanisms of earthworms, which enable them to move through narrow and…

As it is getting increasingly difficult to achieve gains in the density and power efficiency of microelectronic computing devices because of lithographic techniques reaching fundamental physical limits, new approaches are required to…

Limbless creatures can crawl on flat surfaces by deforming their bodies and interacting with asperities on the ground, offering a biological blueprint for designing efficient limbless robots. Inspired by this natural locomotion, we present…

Natural organisms utilize distributed actuation through their musculoskeletal systems to adapt their gait for traversing diverse terrains or to morph their bodies for varied tasks. A longstanding challenge in robotics is to emulate this…

From fireflies to heart cells, many systems in Nature show the remarkable ability to spontaneously fall into synchrony. By imitating Nature's success at self-synchronizing, scientists have designed cost-effective methods to achieve…

Surface plasmon resonances of metallic nanostructures offer great opportunities to guide and manipulate light on the nanoscale. In the design of novel plasmonic devices, a central topic is to clarify the intricate relationship between the…

Slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a large single cell visible by unaided eye. We design a slime mould implementation of a tactile hair, where the slime mould responds to repeated deflection of hair by an immediate high-amplitude spike…

Immersed boundary methods are extensively used for simulations of dynamic solid objects interacting with fluids due to their computational efficiency and modelling flexibility compared to body-fitted grid methods. However, thin geometries,…

Small-scale robots hold great potential for targeted cargo delivery in minimally-inv asive medicine. However, current robots often face challenges to locomote efficiently on slip pery biological tissue surfaces, especially when loaded with…

In this work, we study theoretical models of \emph{programmable matter} systems. The systems under consideration consist of spherical modules, kept together by magnetic forces and able to perform two minimal mechanical operations (or…

Molecular simulations are an important tool for research in physics, chemistry, and biology. The capabilities of simulations can be greatly expanded by providing access to advanced sampling methods and techniques that permit calculation of…

Living systems can use a single periphery to perform a variety of tasks and adapt to a dynamic environment. This multifunctionality is achieved through the use of neural circuitry that adaptively controls the reconfigurable musculature.…

Soft robotics has the potential to revolutionize robotic locomotion, in particular, soft robotic swimmers offer a minimally invasive and adaptive solution to explore and preserve our oceans. Unfortunately, current soft robotic swimmers are…

We present a computational design system that assists users to model, optimize, and fabricate quad-robots with soft skins.Our system addresses the challenging task of predicting their physical behavior by fully integrating the multibody…

The ability to propel against flows, i.e., to perform positive rheotaxis, can provide exciting opportunities for applications in targeted therapeutics and non-invasive surgery. To date, no biocompatible technologies exist for navigating…

In the last decade, a great effort has been employed in the study of Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Underwater Vehicles, robots that can easily fly and dive into the water with different levels of mechanical adaptation. However, most of this…

Thanks to the computational power of modern cluster machines, numerical simulations can provide, with an unprecedented level of details, new insights into fluid mechanics. However, taking full advantage of this hardware remains challenging…

Various quadruped robots have been developed to date, and thanks to reinforcement learning, they are now capable of traversing diverse types of rough terrain. In parallel, there is a growing trend of releasing these robot designs as…