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Technologies 9

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• Flexible embedded liquid sensors
  As we shift from carrying electronic devices in our pockets and purses to wearing them on our bodies, those devices need to be able to move and stretch with us, and to sense our movements in order to better do so. Such sensors must remain functional when stretched to several times their resting length, resist...
• Flexible force sensors for microrobotics
  As robots have gotten smaller, softer, and more maneuverable, they’ve opened up myriad possibilities for interacting with objects on a tiny scale, including on and in the human body. However, human hands still have a major advantage over robots: the ability to feel. Researchers at the Wyss Institute are using the Pop-Up MEMS manufacturing technique...
• Flexible robots to assist in endoscopic procedures
  Endoscopes are a standard device in gastrointestinal medicine, used by surgeons to noninvasively see and take biopsies from tissues along the entire digestive tract. However, endoscopes themselves amount to hollow tubes with a camera and light attached, through which different instruments are threaded to the procedure site, and are rigid and not very maneuverable. Two...
• Millimeter-scale Delta robot (milliDelta)
  Delta robots are deployed in many industrial processes, including pick-and-place assemblies, machining, welding, and food packaging. Three individually controlled lightweight arms enable fast and accurate motion of an output platform in three directions. Roboticists have reduced the size of Delta robots for tasks in limited workspaces, but so far, using conventional manufacturing techniques and components,...
• Versatile Ambulatory Microrobots
  Small or difficult-to-access spaces such as areas covered with rubble, or narrow pipes and engines can pose obstacles to search-and-rescue missions, repair works, or environmental and industrial monitoring. One solution for these problems could be small-sized robots that are able to navigate such spaces, transport payload, sense, and communicate. Wyss Institute researchers have developed a...
• Autonomous Flying Microrobots (RoboBees)
  Inspired by the biology of a bee, researchers at the Wyss Institute are developing RoboBees, manmade systems that could perform myriad roles in agriculture or disaster relief. A RoboBee measures about half the size of a paper clip, weighs less that one-tenth of a gram, and flies using “artificial muscles” compromised of materials that contract when...

News 41

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• Press Release Robert Wood receives Max Planck-Humboldt Medal
  November 7, 2018
• Press Release No more Iron Man: submarines now have soft, robotic arms
  October 3, 2018
• Video/​Animation A new spin for soft micro-actuators
  August 24, 2018

Events 1

• May 16, 2018, 6:30pm - 7:30pm Lecture
  
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  The Mechanical Side of Artificial Intelligence
  Rob Wood Wyss Founding Core Faculty and Co-Lead Bioinspired Robotics, will present a talk at Le Laboratoire Cambridge titled, The Mechanical Side of Artificial Intelligence. The talk will take place on Wednesday, May 16, 2018. Doors open at 6pm / talk begins at 6:30pm. Space is limited, please RSVP to secure your attendance. We hope... Free and open to public

Multimedia 29

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  Video/Animation
  Robert Wood receives Max Planck-Humboldt Medal
  This photomatic portrays Robert Wood and his team innovating (soft) robotics research with new approaches. Credit: Max Planck Society

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  Video/Animation
  Soft Robotic Arms: Giving Biologists a Delicate, Deep-sea Reach
  What good is a soft robotic hand without a soft robotic arm to move it? Wyss researchers have now created a soft, modular underwater arm that can help marine biologists study hard-to-reach organisms in the deep sea. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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  Audio/Podcast
  Disruptive: Soft Robotics for Deep Sea Exploration
  The deep ocean is the least explored environment on Earth, and scientists estimate that many thousands of species are yet to be encountered. Marine researchers depend on tools primarily developed for the military or the oil and gas industry to study and capture undersea organisms. Many of them are extremely fragile, some thousands of years...

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  Video/Animation
  Nanofiber-Reinforced Micro-Actuators
  This video explains how two fabrication techniques, soft lithography and rotary jet spinning of nanofibers, are combined to create a new type of micro-actuator for the manipulation of small fragile objects in challenging environments. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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  Video/Animation
  MORPH: A new soft material microfabrication process
  What has the ability to move and show its colors, is made only of silicone rubber and manufactured at the millimeter scale? A soft robotic peacock spider. Researchers have combined three different manufacturing techniques to create a novel origami-inspired soft material microfabrication process that goes beyond what existing approaches can achieve at this small scale....

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  Video/Animation
  3D-Printed Soft Grippers
  What’s the easiest way to pick up soft-bodied sea creatures? 3D-printed soft robots. Watch as an interdisciplinary team of marine biologists, engineers, and roboticists create custom-made soft grippers on-board the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor, allowing them to safely sample many types of delicate sea life in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). Credit: Wyss Institute...