This modular soft robot can be slotted together as easily as Lego

Soft, spongy, and flexible robots have been a promising field of research for a while now, but they do have some common limitations. They tend to be built for single purposes, and are difficult to customize for new tasks. Enter the modular soft robot — a new design from researchers working at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).

The basic module of this bot is comprised of three pneumatic pumps that expand and collapse to change direction. These units can be stacked together as easily as Lego, and as soon as they’re slotted into place, they share the same power source and control system. In what the researchers claim is a first for soft robots, they’re also powered entirely by a vacuum, rather than using pressurized air. This makes it easier for them to work as modules, and is more like how human muscles operate — using contraction, not expansion.

The researchers behind the project say this means these modules could be put to a number of tasks. Stick some grasping tool on the end and you have a robotic arm. Need to make it longer? Just add a few more modules. And they can even be used for locomotion — just stack a few together and it will wriggle like a snake. And if you want it to climb windows? Just stick add suction cups.

“Everyone has a Swiss army knife somewhere, we want this to be the robot equivalent,” Jamie Paik, lead author of the work, told New Scientist. “You can keep this in your toolbox, ready to help automate simple tasks around the home.”

Of course, that’s a long way off, and, like any soft robots, this modular system has its own drawbacks. Compared to more traditional forms of robotics powered by electric motors, for example, they’re not very powerful, nor are they very precise. They’re also not that mobile, as they have to remain tethered to a bulky vacuum pump to provide a power source. Still, the concept is what’s promising, and who wouldn’t want a robot multi-tool in their house?

You can read more about the work in the paper “New soft robots really suck: Vacuum-powered systems empower diverse capabilities” in the journal Science Robotics.