New Approach to Viscosity Enables Complex Motions in Soft Robots

A team of Cornell University researchers has laid the foundation for developing a new class of untethered soft robots that can achieve more complex motions with less reliance on explicit computation. By taking advantage of viscosity — the very thing that previously stymied the movement of soft robots — the new approach offloads control of a soft robot’s cognitive capability from the “brain” onto the body using the robot’s mechanical reflexes and ability to leverage its environment.