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Animal vocalisations serve a wide range of vital functions. Although it is possible to record animal vocalisations with external microphones, more insights are gained from miniature sensors mounted directly on animals' backs. We present…
Swelling-induced snap-buckling in a 3D micro hydrogel device, inspired by the insect-trapping action of Venus flytrap, makes it possible to generate astonishingly fast actuation. We demonstrate that elastic energy is effectively stored and…
Soft robotic manipulators are generally slow despite their great adaptability, resilience, and compliance. This limitation also extends to current soft robotic micromanipulators. Here, we introduce FilMBot, a 3-DOF film-based,…
Life on earth depends on healthy oceans, which supply a large percentage of the planet's oxygen, food, and energy. However, the oceans are under threat from climate change, which is devastating the marine ecosystem and the economic and…
We design, build, and thoroughly test a new type of actuator dubbed viscoelastic liquid cooled actuator (VLCA) for robotic applications. VLCAs excel in the following five critical axes of performance: energy efficiency, torque density,…
Metachronal locomotion is a widespread swimming mode used by aquatic swarming organisms to achieve performance and maneuverability in the intermediate Reynolds number regime. Our understanding of the mechanisms driving these abilities is…
The vast majority of the ocean's volume remains unexplored, in part because of limitations on the vertical range and measurement duration of existing robotic platforms. In light of the accelerating rate of climate change impacts on the…
We introduced a new concept for fabricating solvent stimulus polymer actuators with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy. This was accomplished by integrating porous architectures and electrostatic complexation gradients in a poly(ionic…
Modern autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have advanced sensing capabilities including sonar, cameras, acoustic communication, and diverse bio-sensors. Instead of just sensing its environment and storing the data for post-Mission…
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) encounter significant energy, control and navigation challenges in complex underwater environments, particularly during close-proximity operations, such as launch and recovery (LAR), where fluid…
Leveraging background fluid flows for propulsion has the potential to enhance the range and speed of autonomous aerial and underwater vehicles. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally a fully autonomous strategy for exploiting vortex…
Origami-inspired robots are of particular interest given their potential for rapid and accessible design and fabrication of elegant designs and complex functionalities through cutting and folding of flexible 2D sheets or even strings,…
This paper provides a detailed review on applications of ionic electroactive polymer (i-EAP) soft actuators as active elements of microfluidic micropumps, microvalves, and micromixers. The related works that have so far been presented by…
Recently, Adaptive Secondary Mirrors showed excellent on-sky results in the Near Infrared wavelengths. They currently provide 30mm inter-actuator spacing and about 1 kHz bandwidth. Pushing these devices to be operated at visible wavelengths…
Measuring energy consumption of marine organisms often requires enclosing the animal in a small, sealed chamber to quantify changes in oxygen concentration of the surrounding water. This can limit measurements of free-swimming organisms by…
We present an automated procedure for the design of optimal actuation for flagellar magnetic microswimmers based on numerical optimization. Using this method, a new magnetic actuation method is provided which allows these devices to swim…
This study introduces a novel AI microcontroller optimized for cost-effective, battery-powered edge AI applications. Unlike traditional single bit/cell memory configurations, the proposed microcontroller integrates zero-standby power weight…
Soft machines typically exhibit slow locomotion speed and low manipulation strength because of intrinsic limitations of soft materials. Here, we present a generic design principle that harnesses mechanical instability for a variety of…
Depending on multiple parameters, soft robots can exhibit different modes of locomotion that are difficult to model numerically. As a result, improving their performance is complex, especially in small-scale systems characterized by low…
This paper presents results about fabrication and operation of electrostatic actuators in liquids with various permittivities. In the static mode, we provide experimental and theoretical demonstration that the pull-in effect can be shifted…