New 3-D printing technique can make autonomous robots in a single step

This 3-D-printed robot created at UCLA, barely bigger than a penny, can sense its surroundings. Robert MacCurdy, who designs automated robots at the University of Colorado Boulder, called the UCLA work “a real innovation in 3-D printing technology.” He said the printing of a mobile, shape-shifting material with built-in electronic components and remote sensing capabilities has not been achieved before, and it foreshadows “the production of robots in the future.” Zheng and his colleagues embarked on the project three years ago to see if they could use 3-D printing to build a material capable of sensing its environment — to measure the surrounding temperature, for instance, and to notice if it was struck or being squished. Each part contributes to a whole new “metamaterial” that can bend and flex, stretch and squeeze, and twist and turn, said Huachen Cui, a postdoctoral researcher in Zheng’s lab who spearheaded its development. That’s it.” Science & Medicine Sidewinder snake helps engineers design a better robot If a future Mars rover plans to climb up something steep, it might have to look something like a sidewinder snake. Zheng said it wouldn’t be hard to make the robots bigger — all they’d need is a bigger 3-D printer.