Inspired by nature, these soft robots received their amphibious upgrade with the help of bistable actuators.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have created a soft robot that can effortlessly transition from walking to swimming or from crawling to rolling.

“We were inspired by nature to develop a robot that can perform different tasks and adapt to its environment without adding actuators or complexity,” said Dinesh K. Patel, a postdoctoral fellow in the Morphing Matter Lab in the School of Computer Science’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute. “Our bistable actuator is simple, stable and durable, and lays the foundation for future work on dynamic, reconfigurable soft robotics.”