Estimates based on the strength, size, and shape of the Atlantic razor clam (Ensis directus) indicate that the animal’s burrow depth should be physically limited to a few centimeters; yet razor clams can dig as deep as 70 cm. By measuring soil deformations around burrowing E. directus, […]

Pharmaceutical developments and discoveries in medicine has been on the rise this last decade. The rise of synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Bone defects are occurring at an increasing rate with several deformative causes. Current “gold standard” treatments are influenced by our bodies’ lack […]

Creating an adhesive that can bond together bones has long presented researchers with some sticky problems. Many glues will not adhere to slick, wet surfaces, and those that do still tend to dissolve into the surrounding liquid. When setting shattered bones, surgeons instead must turn to metal screws and plates, a […]

“The present article shows the development of a gripper for general purposes with grasping and holding capabilities enabled by a simple control scheme. This objective has been reached exploiting the combination of soft materials, underactuated mechanisms, and a bioinspired design. The development of […]

Technological developments in healthcare have been at the center of focus during last decade. The rise of Nano therapeutic platforms has seen recent advancements in combating deadly diseases like cancer. A lot of research is already done on nanotechnology systems like liposomes, Nano emulsions, dendrimers and micelles, and recently carbon nanotubes […]

Most robots use wheels for movement, with newer bio-inspired ones trying to accomplish bipedalism. Salto-1P, a robot built in Berkeley’s Biomimetics lab, was inspired by saltatorial animals. Its one unique leg, modeled after the galago, instantaneously uses up stored energy to perform a string of jumps. Its jumping locomotion allows it to travel across complex […]

Researchers at Harvard are developing bio-inspired neural probes. Current probes are inflexible and foreign to the brain’s environment, so they lead to neuroinflammatory responses, loss of neurons, and measurement instabilities. The researchers developed electronics with a soma, neurite, and thin polymer insulation that acted like a myelin […]

Mission performance for small aircraft is often dependent on the turn radius. Various biologically inspired concepts have demonstrated that performance can be improved by morphing the wings in a manner similar to birds and bats; however, the morphing of the vertical tail has received less attention since neither birds nor bats […]

The animal and plant worlds have inspired scientists for ages, and scientists have long been interested in why certain organisms are resilient to impact. Think of a woodpecker’s skull and beak, the protective way a fish’s scales overlap, or the thick rind that keeps a falling fruit […]

Authors Yucheng Tang, Lei Qin, Xiaoning Li, Chee-Meng Chew, Jian Zhu have designed a lightweight aquatic soft robot that mimics the anatomy of frogs, including their muscles and webbed feet to increase thrust and swimming speed. They have employed two dielectric elastomer actuators, which have not been used a lot for […]

The octopus is an interesting model for the development of soft robotics, due to its high deformability, dexterity and rich behavioral repertoire. To investigate the principles of octopus dexterity, we designed an eight-arm soft robot and evaluated its performance with focused experiments. The OCTOPUS robot presented here is a completely soft […]

Abstract: As an important application of functional biomaterials, neural probes have contributed substantially to studying the brain. Bioinspired and biomimetic strategies have begun to be applied to the development of neural probes, although these and previous generations of probes have had structural and mechanical dissimilarities from their neuron targets that […]

Deep learning is a machine learning technique that uses multi-layered networks to learn how to do a task. Due to the volume of data and complexity of algorithms in the networks, it is often unclear to humans how exactly artificial intelligence learns. Similar to reinforcement training used with dogs, reinforcement […]

All engineering systems that move through fluids can benefit from a reduction in opposing forces, or drag. As a result, there is a significant focus on finding new ways to improve the lift-to-drag ratios of systems that move through fluids. Nature has proven to be an extremely beneficial source of […]

The “PidgeonBot” was created by Stanford researchers by dissecting the biomechanics of the avian morphing mechanism. Through analyzing the skeletal motion of birds, researchers were able to determine that only the emulation of the wrist and finger motion were needed to actuate all 20 primary and […]