a rift

newsotu:

“HARVARD RESEARCHERS CREATE WORLD’S FIRST ALL-SOFT ROBOT”

  Researchers at Harvard University have successfully created the world’s first-ever fully autonomous soft robot. To emphasize, this is the first robot created that does not use any hard components.
  The robot is controlled by a pneumatic systems and is shaped like an octopus. Unlike regular robots made of hard materials, this robot’s legs don’t propel it and it isn’t governed by a computer. Instead, the legs just flop around through an autonomous pneumatic system. This system is powered through chemical reactions; gas from hydrogen peroxide pushes fluid through the Ocotobot’s structure in a specific sequence which creates movement.
 “The struggle has always been in replacing rigid components like batteries and electronic controls with analogous soft systems and then putting it all together,” explained Wood in the Harvard news release. “This research demonstrates that we can easily manufacture the key components of a simple, entirely soft robot, which lays the foundation for more complex designs.”

Read more about this fascinating story on:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/24/harvards-octobot-is-the-first-autonomous-machine-to-be-made-with-all-soft-robotics/

http://futurism.com/harvard-made-the-worlds-first-all-soft-robot-its-autonomous-and-its-adorable/