Watch this robot do ’The Worm’ when temperature changes

Creators at Johns Hopkins envision 'gelbots' crawling through human bodies to deliver medicine. A gelbot in motion - A new gelatinous robot that crawls, powered by nothing more than temperature change and clever design, brings "a kind of intelligence" to the field of soft robotics. The inchworm-inspired work is detailed today in Science Robotics . "It seems very simplistic but this is an object moving without batteries, without wiring, without an external power supply of any kind-just on the swelling and shrinking of gel," said senior author David Gracias , a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins University. "Our study shows how the manipulation of shape, dimensions and patterning of gels can tune morphology to embody a kind of intelligence for locomotion." Robots are made almost exclusively of hard materials like metals and plastics, a fundamental obstacle in the push to create if not more human-like robots, then robots ideal for human biomedical advancements. Water-based gels, which feel like gummy bears, are one of the most promising materials in the field of soft robotics. Researchers have previously demonstrated that gels that swell or shrink in response to temperature can be used to create smart structures.