Overview
- The UC San Diego team reports the advance in Science Advances, demonstrating steerable robots 3–7 millimeters in diameter and about 25 centimeters long.
- The soft skin integrates liquid crystal elastomer actuators and flexible heaters to locally contract the robot’s body for controlled turning.
- Tests showed several bends greater than 100 degrees and traversal through gaps as narrow as half the robot’s diameter.
- A camera-equipped robot navigated models of human arteries and the interior of a jet engine to perform inspection tasks.
- The work targets applications in delicate, constrained environments and remains a lab demonstration with planned autonomy and further miniaturization.