An international team of researchers has embedded gold nanorods in hydrogels that can be processed through 3D printing to create structures that contract when exposed to light -- and expand again when ...

Empa researchers are working on producing artificial muscles that can keep up with the real thing. They have now developed a ...

SUTD, SUSTech and ZJU researchers' proposed process flow guides 3D printing of miniature soft pneumatic actuators. Integrating the prints into a robotic system offers potential applications in ...

A new 3D printing technique can create paper-thin "magnetic muscles," which can be applied to origami structures to make them move.

Traditional robotic systems with rigid parts often pose a threat to human operators. Recently flourishing soft actuators and robots, in contrast, offer excellent adaptivity to surroundings and safe, ...

However, there are far more potential applications for soft actuators. They are light, noiseless and, thanks to the new 3D printing process, can be shaped as required. They could replace conventional ...

The rabbit hole of features and clever hacks in [chiprobot]’s NEMA17 3D Printed Linear Actuator is pretty deep. Not only can it lift 2kg+ of mass easily, it is mostly 3D printed, and uses commonplace ...

Motors are all well and good for moving things, but they’re all about the round-and-round. Sometimes, you need to move something back and forth, and for that a linear actuator will do the trick. While ...

Researchers have demonstrated miniature soft hydraulic actuators that can be used to control the deformation and motion of soft robots that are less than a millimeter thick. The researchers have also ...

(Nanowerk News) Traditional robotic systems with rigid parts often pose a threat to human operators. Recently flourishing soft actuators and robots, in contrast, offer excellent adaptivity to ...