World’s first soft robot developed

BEIJING: Researchers at Tianjin University have developed a new type of robot that combines flexible electronics with liquid droplets – the world’s first fully soft-bodied robot, and is expected to become a promising advance for the development of the flexible electronics industry and implantable medical devices, China News Service reported.

Inspired by biological organisms, such as jellyfish, that possess soft mechanics and comply readily with external forces, the liquid droplets with the functionality of flexible electronics and techniques use droplets as carriers for flexible devices.

They possess similar mechanics as the soft organs and supply sophisticated functions that have been demonstrated for sensing, displaying, computing, and energy harvesting and storage. — China Daily/ANN