Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We ...

Imagine a rubber band that turns into a steel cable on command. Now imagine it’s inside a robot. That’s the basic trick of a new artificial muscle built by researchers at the Ulsan National Institute ...

Our muscles are nature’s actuators. The sinewy tissue is what generates the forces that make our bodies move. In recent years, engineers have used real muscle tissue to actuate “biohybrid robots” made ...

Future robots could soon have a lot more muscle power. Northwestern University engineers have developed a soft artificial muscle, paving the way for untethered animal- and human-scale robots. The new ...

While 2026 has been an objectively terrible year for humans thus far, it’s turning out—for better or worse—to be a banner year for robots. (Robots that are not Tesla’s Optimus thingamajig, anyway.) ...

Light-powered artificial muscles for underwater robots with reversible, high-stroke actuation Demonstrating 3 times greater actuation stroke and 2 times higher work capacity than existing ...

AI-powered artificial muscles made from pliable materials are reshaping recovery, from stroke rehabilitation to prosthetic design. These machines help people regain motion, strength, and confidence. A ...

A wave of recent research has brought robotic touch sensitivity closer to human fingertips than ever before, driven by ...

(THE CONVERSATION) Inspired by the human eye, our biomedical engineering lab at Georgia Tech has designed an adaptive lens made of soft, light-responsive, tissuelike materials. Adjustable camera ...