MIT engineers design flexible “skeletons” for soft, muscle-powered robots

They’ve demonstrated a handful of “biohybrid” robots that use muscle-based actuators to power artificial skeletons that walk, swim, pump, and grip. Now, MIT engineers have developed a spring-like device that could be used as a basic skeleton-like module for almost any muscle-bound bot. To get a muscle to work like a mechanical actuator, engineers typically attach a band of muscle tissue between two small, flexible posts. “The question is: How do we design a skeleton that most efficiently uses the force the muscle is generating?” Raman says. The researchers are now adapting and combining flexures to build precise, articulated, and reliable robots, powered by natural muscles.