Meet the soft robots that can amputate limbs and connect with other robots

Robotics in Factory at Yale University have developed a way for soft robots to copy a few of the more disturbing things that animals and insects can do—like reptiles amputating their limbs, or ants constructing bridges by temporarily fusing their bodies together.

In one demonstration video, a soft, four-legged robot crawls when a falling rock blocks its hind leg. The reversible joint that holds the leg is heated by electricity, allowing the robot to free itself from the leg and escape. Although not shown in the video, the limb can even be reattached.

In the second video, a single crawler robot is unable to bridge the gap between the tables, but three robots manage to connect them together (again, using joints heated and softened by an electrical current) and then bridge the gap as a single unit.

These capabilities should not entirely latest to the world of robotics (especially modular robotics), but existing systems based on mechanical joints and magnets are inherently rigid, in accordance with IEEE Spectrum. The innovation here is in the joints, created using a fabric called bicontinuous thermoplastic foam, together with a sticky polymer. This combination allows the joint to melt and break, and then be glued back together.

The roboticists described their work in the article: “Self-Amputation and Joining Machines” published in Advanced Materials. They claim that using their techniques may lead to “future robots capable of radical shape-shifting through mass changes via autotomy and interfusion.”

Is this roughly weird than a smiling robot face with living skin? Tell me.