The cool robot is made from polyethlyene, and is capable of squeezing into the smallest, strangest gaps, which would normally be impossible to travel through.
The implications of the technology could be quite diverse, and the robot can be used to transport substances through its middle (such as water, through cracks and debris to disaster victims. The air pressure used in the robot is also capable of lifting heavy objects. It can also move at up to speeds of 22mph.
“Across kingdoms and length scales, certain cells and organisms navigate their environments not through locomotion but through growth,” the team wrote.
“We report a class of soft pneumatic robot that is capable of a basic form of this behavior, growing substantially in length from the tip while actively controlling direction using onboard sensing of environmental stimuli.”
