Birds are able to do a lot thanks to their highly flexible necks, whether it be turning their heads around to groom their backs, looking in many different directions during flight, or accessing hard-to-reach nooks and crannies along the ground or in trees. Among all avian species, the ostrich stands out as one bird with […]
Bugs have long taunted roboticists with how utterly incredible they are. Astonishingly mobile, amazingly efficient, super robust, and in some cases, literally dirt cheap. But making a robot that’s insect equivalent is extremely hard—so hard that it’s frequently easier to just hijack living insects themselves and put them to work for us. You know what’s […]
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. When we think about flexibility in bioinspired robots, the best examples can usually be found in soft robots that mimic octopus arms or elephant trunks, which have some very unique capabilities. But most animals are soft and flexible to […]