Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our times, one of the main consequences being rising sea levels. Beyond putting human civilization at risk, rising sea levels have heavily contributed to the near extinction of oyster-reefs. In fact, oyster-reef abundance has already declined ∼85% globally over the past […]

Designers of legged robots are challenged with creating mechanisms that allow energy-efficient locomotion with robust and minimalistic control. Sources of high energy costs in legged robots include the rapid loading and high forces required to support the robot’s mass during stance and the rapid cycling of the […]

A team of scientists has constructed a robot leg that, like its natural model, is very energy efficient. BirdBot benefits from a foot-leg coupling through a network of muscles and tendons that extends across multiple joints. In this way, BirdBot needs fewer motors than previous legged robots and could, theoretically, scale […]

This article gives insight into how researchers in different countries use bio-inspired robots in order to study animal behavior in their natural environment. For example, scientists from the US created a robot (B2) inspired by bats and their flight mechanism. B2 can do fast diving maneuvers and […]

It is generally agreed that sperms ‘swim’ by beating or rotating their soft tails. However, a research team has discovered that ray sperms move by rotating both the tail and the head. The team further investigated the motion pattern and demonstrated it with a robot. Their study has expanded the knowledge […]

Researchers at MIT say they have developed a tiny sensor-carrying device that can be blown by the wind as it tumbles toward the ground, offering potential for wireless sensors that can monitor how temperature, humidity or other environmental conditions vary across large swaths of land, such as farms or forests.

Researchers at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have modelled an improved highly energy efficient robot leg for their Birdbot robot based on the structures of legs from ostriches, which share the same features and mechanisms as the legs of the Tyrannosaurus Rex 66 millions years ago. This structure of the […]

Researchers created a 3D-printable mask design modeled after animal noses that are more breathable. They mimicked the winding pathways that air takes in animal noses, which not only increases the surface area over which pathogens can be filtered out, but also prevents a drop in air pressure, which makes the masks […]

“Projection-based 3D bioprinting can be summarized as a surface-to-entity forming method. As the printing process begins, the platform firstly goes down and submerges under the liquid material surface, leaving a thin gap between the tank bottoms. This gap, when filled with materials, has the same thickness with each digital slice. Then, […]

Thanks to its feathery fluff, a dandelion seed riding the wind can cover more than half a mile. While disheartening for many gardeners, this marvel of passive travel was an inspiration for scientists at the University of Washington. The UW researchers have created tiny devices that are dispersed with the breeze, […]

Investigating the complex and highly ordered mineralized skeletal system of the knobby starfish, a team of U.S. National Science Foundation discovered an unexpected combination of characteristics that may lead to developing an entirely new class of high-performance lightweight ceramic composites.

The team examined ossicles, calcareous skeletal […]

Noncoding RNA molecules called Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) normally suppress gene activity in humans. Geneticists are using piRNAs in nematode worms for gene silencing to allow biomedical research and drug development to advance. They created a 21-letter RNA sequence and combined it with natural piRNA machinery and silenced certain genes. They were […]

Synthetic regulatory networks with prescribed functions are engineered by assembling a reduced set of functional elements. We could also assemble them computationally if the mathematical models of those functional elements were predictive enough in different genetic contexts. Only after achieving this will we have libraries of models of biological parts able […]

Conventional wide-field-of-view cameras consist of multi-lens optics and flat image sensor arrays, which makes them bulky and heavy. As a result, they are poorly suited to advanced mobile applications such as drones and autonomous vehicles. In nature, the eyes of aquatic animals consist […]

Bio-inspired intelligence is in the spotlight in the field of international artificial intelligence, and unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), owing to its potential to perform dangerous, repetitive tasks in remote and hazardous, is very promising for the technological leadership of the nation and essential for improving the […]

Festo, a global supplier of automation equipment, has unveiled three new lightweight robotic concepts which take inspiration from elephants, octopuses and the human arm.

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Fire ants survive floods by forming rafts made up of thousands of wriggling insects. A new study by engineers at CU Boulder lays out the simple physics-based rules that govern how these ant rafts morph over time: shrinking, expanding or growing long protrusions like an elephant’s trunk. Fire ants form these […]