(ECNS) -- Soft-bodied robots have been developed by a research team of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).
Different from robots applied in deep-sea research and machinery manufacturing, these flexible robots are mainly used in daily life. They can feed, clean glass, open bottle caps, spray and grind for industrial use.
Inspired by nature, the robot is implemented with a Honeycomb Pneumatic network. Airbags inside the honeycomb structure will control its shape via air pressure, resulting in bending or elongating motion in different directions.
Compared with a traditional robot arm, the soft robot arm has more advantages in production cost, load capacity, and post-maintenance.
"The weight of a soft-bodied robot equals only a third of a traditional robot under the same specifications, and could even be much lighter. Its cost will be accordingly reduced to a third, even a fifth of a traditional counterpart," said Chen Xiaoping, a researcher of the School of Computer Science and Technology of USTC.
