News Materials Science

High-tech ‘skins’ turn everyday objects into robots

Changing how the skins wrap around a tube can achieve different types of motion

robotic skins on a stuffed horse

BUILD-A-BOT Wrapping bendable, stretchable skins around inanimate objects — like this stuffed horse, swaddled in robotic skins that move its legs — quickly creates a soft robot.

J.W. Booth et al/Sci Robotics 2018

By Maria Temming

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