Give a robot a fish, you will feed it for a day. Teach a robot to fish, you will feed it for a lifetime.
At least that’s what researchers at MIT have done with this freaky, clear robotic arm made using a new and novel hydrogel. It’s sort of rubbery, sort of tough and sort of like water. It’s the liquid properties that make this robotic appendage unique. The arm is mostly water, making it nearly invisible when placed in the tank. Pump more water into the arm, the fingers close. All the better to sneak up and gently grasp an unsuspecting domesticated carp.
In the future, these watery arms could be used to gently collect samples or even assist in biomedical applications. In the meantime, we will be dreaming of watery tentacles for the Deep Sea News Lair.
SOURCE:
https://news.mit.edu/2017/transparent-gel-robots-catch-release-fish-0201
