Soft Robotic Muscles Can Be Made in Any Shape and Lift 1,000 Times Their Weight

Traditional servos and steppers for robots have certainly proved to be practical in a wide range of applications. These provide movement for everything from industrial automotive SCARA robots, to the innovative autonomous walkers that we’ve seen from Boston Dynamics. But, they do have limitations—primarily when it comes to their weight-to-capacity ratio.

As a result, we see a lot of unconventional solutions for powering movement. A new one from MIT and Harvard uses soft and flexible silicone to form artificial muscles. These can be made in pretty much any shape, as long as there are cavities to create pressure differentials. That differential can be created with a vacuum, pneumatics, or hydraulics.

The muscles themselves can be setup for whatever kind of motion is needed, like rotation, contraction, extension, and gripping. As the researchers demonstrate, these can lift up to 1,000 times the weight of the muscle itself. And, because the muscles can be designed to fit any shape, they should be useful for a wide range of needs.

They’re also affordable, with some designs costing less than $1 per muscle. That’s because of how inexpensive the materials are, and because very few electronics are necessary. A valve system can be integrated to power multiple muscles from a single source, making it even more cost-effective for complex mechanisms.