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Y have its function changed by chang-
ing how it is wrapped around a flexi-
ble core. With actuators aligned along
the length of a flexible rod of foam or
an inflatable, they can force a bending
motion. Two or three close together
become grippers. Rotate them 90°,
and the actuators let the rod move
IN A LABORATORY at Yale Univer- sity, a soft toy horse with pros- thetic coverings around its foam-stuffed legs has taken its first tentative steps. De-
spite its stiff and not entirely coor-
dinated gait, the toy demonstration
may point the way toward helping
space agencies put lighter, more ver-
satile robots into space.
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, assistant
professor at the Yale School of Engineer-
ing & Applied Science, says she was wres-
tling with the problem of how to allow
robots to handle a wider variety of jobs
than current approaches, which often
focus on performing a single function
well, when the U.S. National Aeronau-
tics and Space Administration (NASA)
issued a request for novel robot designs
based on lighter, plastic approaches.
Rather than attempt to lift many
single-task robots into orbit, the
space agency wants a single reconfig-
urable machine to be able to handle
different tasks and, occasionally, to
act as prosthetics for human astro-
nauts. “You may need to make an
exploratory locomotion robot that
can go out and collect data from an
unknown environment. At the same
time, you may need suits to promote
blood flow in the astronauts who are
onboard,” she says. And NASA wants
to avoid the weight of bulky, metal-
framed robots.
“The idea I had was to have a robot-
ic skin,” she says.
Armed with sensors and pneu-
matic actuators, the artificial skin can
Soft Robots Look
to New Environments

These non-standard automatons appear best suited for applications under water and in space.

Science | DOI: 10.1145/3311719 Chris Edwards

“Robotic Skins” technology developed by Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio and colleagues at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science enables novel designs for robots that can move more freely.