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The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) does not only serve as the textbook model for a carnivorous plant, but also has long intrigued both botanists and engineers with its rapidly closing leaf trap. The trap closure is triggered by two…
The carnivorous aquatic Waterwheel Plant (Aldrovanda vesiculosa L.) and the closely related terrestrial Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula SOL. EX J. ELLIS) both feature elaborate snap-traps, which shut after reception of an external…
The carnivorous aquatic Waterwheel Plant (Aldrovanda vesiculosa L.) and the closely related terrestrial Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula SOL. EX J. ELLIS) both feature elaborate snap-traps, which shut after reception of an external…
Upon stimulation, plants elicit electrical signals that can travel within a cellular network analogous to the animal nervous system. It is well-known that in the human brain, voltage changes in certain regions result from concerted…
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…
Bio-inspired robotic systems are capable of adaptive learning, scalable control, and efficient information processing. Enabling real-time decision-making for such systems is critical to respond to dynamic changes in the environment. We…
The underwater traps of the carnivorous plants of the Utricularia species catch their preys through the repetition of an "active slow deflation / passive fast suction" sequence. In this paper, we propose a mechanical model that describes…
Soft, tip-extending "vine" robots offer a unique mode of inspection and manipulation in highly constrained environments. For practicality, it is desirable that the distal end of the robot can be manipulated freely, while the body remains…
Developing soft robots that can control their own life-cycle and degrade on-demand while maintaining hyper-elasticity is a significant research challenge. On-demand degradable soft robots, which conserve their original functionality during…
Snapping beams enable rapid geometric transitions through nonlinear instability, offering an efficient means of generating motion in soft robotic systems. In this study, a tendon-driven mechanism consisting of spiral-based metabeams was…
The capability to sense and respond to external mechanical stimuli at various timescales is essential to many physiological aspects in plants, including self-protection, intake of nutrients, and reproduction. Remarkably, some plants have…
Helical structures, almost ubiquitous in biological systems, have inspired the design and manufacturing of helical devices with applications in nanoelecromechanical systems (NEMS), morphing structures, optoelectronics, micro-robotics and…
Foams are versatile by nature and ubiquitous in a wide range of applications, including padding, insulation, and acoustic dampening. Previous work established that foams 3D printed via Viscous Thread Printing (VTP) can in principle combine…
Dynamic shape-morphing soft materials systems are ubiquitous in living organisms; they are also of rapidly increasing relevance to emerging technologies in soft machines, flexible electronics, and smart medicines. Soft matter equipped with…
Soft robotic grippers are shown to be high effective for grasping unstructured objects with simple sensing and control strategies. However, they are still limited by their speed, sensing capabilities and actuation mechanism. Hence, their…
Soft growing robots, commonly referred to as vine robots, have demonstrated remarkable ability to interact safely and robustly with unstructured and dynamic environments. It is therefore natural to exploit contact with the environment for…
We describe reshaping of active textiles actuated by bending of Janus fibres comprising both active and passive components. A great variety of shapes, determined by minimising the overall energy of the fabric, can be produced by varying…
Manipulating clothing is challenging due to complex configurations, variable material dynamics, and frequent self-occlusion. Prior systems often flatten garments or assume visibility of key features. We present a dual-arm visuotactile…
We consider the problem of closed-loop robotic grasping and present a novel planner which uses Visual Feedback and an uncertainty-aware Adaptive Sampling strategy (VFAS) to close the loop. At each iteration, our method VFAS-Grasp builds a…
The leaf-like origami structure was inspired by geometric patterns found in nature, exhibiting unique transitions between open and closed shapes. With a bistable energy landscape, leaf-like origami is able to replicate the autonomous…