soft robots

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A new algorithm learns to squish, bend, or stretch a robot’s entire body to accomplish diverse tasks like avoiding obstacles or retrieving items.

This image shows 3D-printed crystalline lattice structures with air-filled channels, known as "fluidic sensors," embedded into the structures (the indents on the middle of lattices are the outlet holes of the sensors.) These air channels let the researchers measure how much force the lattices experience when they are compressed or flattened.

Engineers 3D print materials with networks of sensors directly incorporated.