Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 58 mins ago
Beetle-sized soft robot walks and grips using printed artificial muscles
Researchers built a beetle-sized soft robot called BeetleBot to move and grip objects without tiny motors or gears.
Its legs and jaws move using printed strips of liquid crystal elastomer, a plastic that contracts when heated by electric current.
A person steers it by bending a finger fitted with a sensor patch, while a camera and pressure sensor send back information about its surroundings and grip.
The design draws on the leg joints and opposing muscle pairs of a flower beetle, which the team studied to position BeetleBot’s artificial muscles.
Its muscles can pull with a force comparable to mammal skeletal muscle, helping the small robot carry a camera and gripper.
A sensor in its jaws can detect contact and distinguish shapes by producing different signals when it grips spheres or a cube.
BeetleBot is a beetle-sized soft robot that walks and grips using muscles made from printed plastic.
The muscles contract when heated by electric current and stretch back as they cool.
A finger-worn sensor patch lets a person steer the robot by bending a finger.
A camera and a pressure sensor send information about what the robot sees and touches.
The team based the robot’s six-leg layout on the movements of a beetle.
- Who
- Researchers led by Sang Ouk Kim of KAIST and Wei Gao of Caltech developed BeetleBot with a group at NTU Singapore.
- What
- They built a beetle-sized soft robot that walks and grips using heated, printed artificial muscles.
- When
- Published on November 13, 2026. The research date is not stated.
- Where
- The work involved researchers at KAIST, Caltech and NTU Singapore.
- Why
- To make an insect-scale robot that can move and grip without tiny rigid motors and gears.
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- Robot name
- BeetleBot
- Size
- About the size of a real beetle
- Muscle contraction
- About 45 percent at 3 volts
- Muscle pulling stress
- 0.18 megapascals at its strongest
- Touch response
- 0.127 seconds
- Gripper pressure range
- Readings rose almost in step with pressure up to 50 kilopascals