Scientists have developed HydroSpread, a novel technique for building soft robots on water, with wide-ranging possibilities in robotics, healthcare, and environmental monitoring.
Picture a miniature robot, no larger than a leaf, gliding effortlessly across the surface of a pond, much like a water strider. In the future, machines of this scale could be deployed to monitor pollution, gather water samples, or explore flooded zones too hazardous for people.
At the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Baoxing Xu is working on a way to make such devices a reality. His team’s latest study, published in Science Advances, unveils HydroSpread, a fabrication method unlike any before it. The approach enables researchers to create soft, buoyant machines directly on water, a breakthrough with applications that could range from medical care to consumer electronics to environmental monitoring.
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