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Dexterous locomotion, such as immediate direction change during fast movement or shape reconfiguration to perform diverse tasks, are essential animal survival strategies which have not been achieved in existing soft robots. Here, we present a kind of small-scale dexterous soft robot, consisting of an active dielectric elastomer artificial muscle and reconfigurable chiral-lattice foot, that enables immediate and reversible forward, backward and circular direction changes during fast movement under single voltage input. Our electric-driven soft robot with the structural design can be combined with smart materials to realize multimodal functions via shape reconfigurations under the external stimulus. We experimentally demonstrate that our dexterous soft robots can reach arbitrary points in a plane, form complex trajectories, or lower the height to pass through a narrow tunnel. The proposed structural design and shape reconfigurability may pave the way for next-generation autonomous soft robots with dexterous locomotion.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40626-x | DOI Listing |
Updates Surg
September 2025
Surgical Department, HPB Unit Pederzoli Hospital, Peschiera del Garda, Verona, Italy.
Minimally invasive pancreaticoduodenectomy is gaining success among surgeons also for the increasing use of robotic approach. Ideal candidates are patients with small, confined tumor and dilatated Wirsung duct which is a quite rare clinical conditions: in fact, most of minimally invasive pancreaticoduodenectomies are performed for periampullary cancer, easy to remove but with soft pancreatic remnant and tiny Wirsung duct. The result is the technical challenge of the pancreatico-enteric reconstructions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrosyst Nanoeng
September 2025
Department of Ophthalmology, Key Laboratory of Precision Medicine for Eye Diseases of Zhejiang Province, Center for Rehabilitation Medicine,, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital (Affiliated People's Hospital, Hangzhou Medical College), Hangzhou, 314408, China.
Retinal surgery is one of the most delicate and complex operations, which is close to or even beyond the physiological limitation of the human hand. Robots have demonstrated the ability to filter hand tremors and motion scaling which has a promising output in microsurgery. Here, we present a novel soft micron accuracy robot (SMAR) for retinal surgery and achieve a more precise and safer operation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
September 2025
McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
Many soft, tough materials have emerged in recent years, paving the way for advances in wearable electronics, soft robotics, and flexible displays. However, understanding the interfacial fracture behavior of these materials remains a significant challenge, owing to the difficulty of quantifying the respective contributions from viscoelasticity and damage to energy dissipation ahead of cracks. This work aims to address this challenge by labeling a series of polymer networks with fluorogenic mechanophores, subjecting them to T-peel tests at various rates and temperatures, and quantifying their force-induced damage using a confocal microscope.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Cybern
September 2025
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 61801, IL, USA.
In this article, a biophysically realistic model of a soft octopus arm with internal musculature is presented. The modeling is motivated by experimental observations of sensorimotor control where an arm localizes and reaches a target. Major contributions of this article are: (i) development of models to capture the mechanical properties of arm musculature, the electrical properties of the arm peripheral nervous system (PNS), and the coupling of PNS with muscular contractions; (ii) modeling the arm sensory system, including chemosensing and proprioception; and (iii) algorithms for sensorimotor control, which include a novel feedback neural motor control law for mimicking target-oriented arm reaching motions, and a novel consensus algorithm for solving sensing problems such as locating a food source from local chemical sensory information (exogenous) and arm deformation information (endogenous).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKnee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc
September 2025
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Purpose: Robotic arm-assisted total knee arthroplasty (raTKA) has demonstrated several advantages over manual TKA (mTKA), including enhanced early recovery. Reduced soft tissue trauma and avoidance of femoral intramedullary canal opening have been hypothesised to lower the systemic inflammatory response. However, findings from previous small-cohort studies have been inconsistent.
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