This is a robotic leg, one currently in development by engineers at ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. However, it’s not using actuators, cogs or other conventional ...

It might look like a simple material experiment at first glance, as a brief ultrasound stimulation induces a thin strip of silicone to start bending and arching. But that’s just the beginning. A team ...

Our muscles are nature’s actuators. The sinewy tissue is what generates the forces that make our bodies move. In recent years, engineers have used real muscle tissue to actuate “biohybrid robots” made ...

The muscles of the human body are pretty amazing—they can retract on command, stretch without damage, and even heal themselves when injured. Artificial imitators have always lagged far behind in ...