(Research done at @amolf-nl.bsky.social in the Soft Robotic Matter Group: overvelde.com)

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One last note: the machine is doing all this with a single, constant pressure source as input, and nothing else. 🤯

That's it, folks! Here you find all the details (open access), in case you are curious:

www.cell.com/device/fullt...

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Here is the final soft machine in action. What I find cool is the temporary nature of the short-term mechanical memory! After a retention time (tunable by design), the machine purposefully "forgets" that the interaction even occurred, going back to the default forward-locomoting behavior. 🧪⚛️

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To build a fully autonomous machine, we added two antennae with soft tubes at the hinge. The tubes kink and unkink when the flagellum touches obstacles, allowing the machine to detect them. In short-term memory settings, the machine temporarily steers away from the obstacle, avoiding it! 🕺

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We can now integrate all elements (self-oscillators, memory shells, fluidic circuits, and kinking tubes) in a complete soft machine. When left to explore an environment, the machine senses interactions with users and programs its behavior accordingly, memorizing the past interaction.

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We then built soft valves that open and close when gently touched. We used tubes that form kinks when bent (similar to what happens when you block water in the gardening hose by kinking it). It works well in transducing mechanical information (touch) into fluidic (channels closing/opening).

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We had to apply a high force to snap the shell to the other stable state. To enable smooth interactions with the surroundings, we came up with fluidic circuits that surround the shell. With valves that open and close, we can repeatably write the memory, both in long- and short-term fashion.

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Having that in mind, we realized that, once we provide bistability to this capacitance using elastic shells, the output behavior is also bistable. This means that the system embodies memory: the speed of the machine at time t reflects the past snapping of the shell that occurred at time t*<t.

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We started by observing that, in a self-oscillating soft machine, the locomotion speed is a function of an internal physical parameter: the fluidic capacitance. If we tune that parameter (which is, simply put, the size of an air container), we can directly change the behavior of the machine

Can soft machines remember past events using their body, without any processor? 💭

Out now in Device (Cell Press @cellpress.bsky.social), we harness bistable elastic shells to program and memorize locomotion behaviors upon interactions with the surroundings. 🎈🐙

🧪⚛️ www.doi.org/10.1016/j.de...

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This mechanism shrinks when pulled YouTube video by Veritasium

This mechanism shrinks when pulled

Watch our latest video in full on YouTube
youtu.be/-QTkPfq7w1A

christoph: "yes" is a wholesome answer, occasionally 😄

Zooming in, we saw that the worm bends its body so much that it can form a kink at the bend! Kinks are usually detrimental in structures. For example, Kinked straws are useless. But this nematode can reversibly kink its body and keep jumping!

🌬️ 𝘒𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘪 𝘥’𝘈𝘳𝘪𝘢: 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴. Our installation, Kirigami d’Aria, is on view as part of the biennial architecture exhibition Time Space Existence organized by the European Cultural Centre.

Buckling normally happens when you compress something slender, but 'tug' on a piece of crumpled paper at two points and it also buckles. Read more about how this "localized-TUG folding" occurs in many systems at: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2423439122

My linocut showing 3 fireflies in green grass against a dark blue starry sky. Each firefly has orange on its upper body and its lower body is surrounded by a globe of light to show it is glowing, printed in glow in the dark ink.

July 5 - 6 is World Firefly Day! Like a lot of insects fireflies are threatened by our actions. 🧪🐡Check out fireflyersinternational.net to find out how you can help gather data on these magical animals & help scientists track their populations.

My #linocut print shows 3 fireflies (Photinus pyralis,

Physical synchronization of soft self-oscillating limbs for fast and autonomous locomotion Animals achieve robust locomotion by offloading regulation from the brain to physical couplings within the body. In contrast, locomotion in artificial systems often depends on centralized processors. ...

And our wobbly robot is on Veritasium! 🤩 🎈

🎬 Interview with Veritasium: www.instagram.com/reel/DKKfd36...

📝 Article: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

@science.org 🧪
@veritasium.bsky.social ⚛️

🎉🎉We’re on the cover of Nature Physics! @natphys.nature.com

Here is the original paper www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Speedy, soft robot powered by air alone The innovation could lead to new drug delivery methods...

Great podcast about our latest article on Science (@science.org) by The Naked Scientists! 🧪⚛️

🐙 🎧 Listen: www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/sho...

📝 Read the article: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This totally tubular robot doesn’t need a centralized processing system to hop around on land or swim in the water—it relies instead on air and simple physics. That and more of the best from @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

(6/6) 🧪 ⚛️
In the past few years, playing with these devices taught me that seemingly simple objects hide a great deal of complexity, ready to be explored. 🤹‍♂️

Thanks to co-authors Mannus Schomaker and Bas Overvelde for this fun adventure!

@amolf-nl.bsky.social
@science.org

Our group: overvelde.com

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Robots with coupled limbs display responsive behaviors: they autonomously avoid obstacles and even change locomotion gait when transitioning from ground to water, without control inputs! All of this by moving pretty fast and efficiently. 💃
(This video is in real time)

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By physical synchronization of multiple limbs through internal interconnections or interactions with the environment, robust and fast locomotion gaits dynamically emerge without the need for centralized processors. They go in sync even at 300 oscillations per second!

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The tubes become self-oscillating limbs of locomoting robots, intrinsically coordinating their (asymmetric) stepping motion!

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We show that a soft tube undergoes kink wave instabilities when powered with a constant stream of air. Spontaneously, kinks form, travel, and then disappear along the tube itself.

Autonomous locomotion simply with tubes as limbs, and no brain? 🎈🤖

Yes, through physical synchronization! Our article is out today in Science (@science.org)

Article: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Authors: @albertocomoretto.bsky.social, H.A.H. Schomaker, J.T.B. Overvelde

More below 🧪 ⚛️
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Thank you again for the talk Kate! ✨

A MANIFESTO FOR SERIOUS JOY.

Closing out my second talk at the RoboSoft workshops with this: take robot joy seriously! Examples include EMFcamp, Cat Royale, and sextech hack. Fantastic bunch of people doing cool things. Feels like my brain has had a good spring clean.