A soft robot has no problem moving with no motor and no gears
42 points
by hhs
4 days ago
| 3 comments
| engineering.princeton.edu
| HN
msuniverse2026
3 hours ago
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Why do these kept getting made? I feel like I see some new soft robot every few months or so. Are they used to infiltrate past grates in a sewer security system and slide under lasers or something what is up with these???
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glitchc
4 minutes ago
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We are soft robots (mostly flesh). The skeleton is a scaffold on which our muscles hang. It makes sense to try to replicate what works in biology.
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ACCount37
13 minutes ago
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Because it's a really cool concept that a lot of engineers and researchers are excited about, despite the lack of practical applications.

Yes, sometimes that's all it takes.

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Xmd5a
1 hour ago
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https://www.bu.edu/biorobotics/icra10workshop/icra10workshop...

> A broad variety of serpentine and continuum robots have been developed for minimally invasive surgical applications.

Soft robotic grippers are also interesting because they allow you to grasp objects without complex touch/force sensors.

https://joaobuzzatto.com/kirigami-grippers/

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degamad
3 hours ago
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Literally the first line of the article:

> With their ability to shapeshift and manipulate delicate objects, soft robots could work as medical implants, deliver drugs inside the body and help explore dangerous environments.

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homeonthemtn
1 hour ago
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I think to OPs point, we keep hearing that same line and I've never once seen a productionalized version of these
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smusamashah
2 hours ago
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world2vec
2 hours ago
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There's this YouTube channel called "soiboi soft"[0] that is doing many experiments with air-powered soft robotics and microfluidics.

It's a pretty cool concept and might have interesting albeit niche applications.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/@soiboisoft

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