Floating Soft Robots Link Up To Form A Squishy-Squashy Giant Bot!

The future my friend, is literally mushy. At least where robotics is concerned. Researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne(EPFL), while trying to boost up the versatility of the robots (flexible enough to adapt themselves to their surroundings), have come up with these soft floating robots, which link up with other similar bots via electroadhesion to form a huge soft-bot.

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As compared to traditional robotics, soft robotics is still a lesser visited field. But if this has to form the future, means for them to communicate with each other, and to co-exist with each other, had to be developed. That's where the EPFL team came up with a connection mechanism that employs electroadhesion (voltages produce a charge difference between two surfaces, which causes attraction) to get the soft robotics modules together.

At present, the modules may resemble jellyfish, but are in a superb working condition. Now the team's looking forward to further develop these soft modules by deforming them and adding sensor technology to them, thus planning on a superior robotic performance. Do watch the video below:

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