A climbing robot that can rapidly move on diverse surfaces such as floors, walls, and ceilings will have an enlarged operational workspace compared with other terrestrial robots. However, the climbing skill of robots in such environments has been lim...
Materials with electroprogrammable stiffness and adhesion can enhance the performance of robotic systems, but achieving large changes in stiffness and adhesive forces in real time is an ongoing challenge. Electroadhesive clutches can rapidly adhere h...
Tiny "gnat robots," weighing just a few milligrams, were first conjectured in the 1980s. How to stabilize one if it were to hover like a small insect has not been answered. Challenges include the requirement that sensors be both low mass and high ban...
Biohybrid bacteria-based microrobots are increasingly recognized as promising externally controllable vehicles for targeted cancer therapy. Magnetic fields in particular have been used as a safe means to transfer energy and direct their motion. Thus ...
Aside from some living tissues, few materials can autonomously learn to exhibit desired behaviors as a consequence of prolonged exposure to unanticipated ambient loading scenarios. Still fewer materials can continue to exhibit previously learned beha...
Autonomous robots-systems where mechanical actuators are guided through a series of states by information processing units to perform a predesigned function-are expected to revolutionize everything from health care to transportation. Microscopic robo...
The limited force or torque outputs of miniature magnetic actuators constrain the locomotion performances and functionalities of magnetic millimeter-scale robots. Here, we present a magnetically actuated gearbox with a maximum size of 3 millimeters f...