Soft robotics, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Pontedera, Italy

Researchers at Center for Micro-BioRobotics of IIT obtained the first soft robot mimicking plant tendrils: it is able to curl and climb, using the same physical principles determining water transport in plants. The research team is led by Barbara Mazzolai and results have been published in Nature Communications. In the future this tendril-like soft robot could inspire the development of wearable devices, such as soft braces, able to actively morph their shape.

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Researchers of IIT's BioInspired Soft robotics lab coordinated by Barbara Mazzolai, have realized a new soft robot inspired by the biology of earthworms,which is able to crawl thanks to soft actuators that elongate or squeeze, when air passes through them or is drawn out. The prototype has been described in the international journal Scientific Reports of the Nature Portfolio, and it is the starting point for developing devices for underground exploration, but also search and rescue operations in confined spaces and the exploration of other planets.

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