Hydrogels have diverse chemical properties and can exhibit reversibly large mechanical deformations in response to external stimuli; these characteristics suggest that hydrogels are promising materials for soft robots. However, reported actuators based on hydrogels generally suffer from slow response speed and/or poor controllability due to intrinsic material limitations and electrode fabrication technologies. Here, we report a hydrogel actuator that operates at low voltages ( 50%, energy density > 7 × 10 ⁵ joules per cubic meter, and power density > 3 × 10 ⁴ watts per cubic meter), surpassing existing hydrogel actuators and other types of electroactive soft actuators. The enhanced performance of our actuator is due to the formation of wrinkled nanomembrane electrodes that exhibit high conductivity and excellent mechanical deformation through capillary-assisted assembly of metal nanoparticles and deswelling-induced wrinkled structures. By applying an electric potential through the wrinkled nanomembrane electrodes that sandwich the hydrogel, we were able to trigger a reversible and substantial electroosmotic water flow inside a hydrogel film, which drove the controlled swelling of the hydrogel. The high energy efficiency and power density of our wrinkled nanomembrane electrode–induced actuator enabled the fabrication of an untethered insect-scale aquabot integrated with an on-board control unit demonstrating maneuverability with fast locomotion speed (1.02 body length per second), which occupies only 2% of the total mass of the robot.

A millimeter-scale multifunctional soft gripper provides mechanical and thermal stimulation as well as biosignal sensing.

Monitoring skin health through parameters like skin hydration (SH) and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) is vital for diagnosing skin conditions and identifying disease factors. Conventional devices and survey-based methods often fail to deliver accurate diagnoses due to circadian rhythms of skin health data, limited measurement frequency, and patient subjectivity. Previous research has shown that prolonged device usage also causes sweat accumulation, compromising reliable monitoring. Here, we present a breathable skin health analyzer (BSA), a wearable device designed for prolonged use, capable of accurate, long-term measurement of SH and TEWL. The BSA addresses considerable obstacles in skin health monitoring by employing a breathable chamber and a bistable actuator that ensures both ventilation and consistent sensor contact with the skin. Validated through a 28-day clinical trial, the BSA and data processing algorithms demonstrated their effectiveness in providing reliable data by analyzing the correlation between particulate matter exposure and the skin barrier health. These results not only highlight the potential to improve the diagnosis and treatment of diseases but also show the possibility of contributing to individual environmental health impact assessments and translational studies.

Rhagovelia ripple bugs use specialized middle-leg fans with a flat-ribbon architecture to navigate the surfaces of fast-moving streams. We show that the fan’s directional stiffness enables fast, passive elastocapillary morphing, independent of muscle input. This flat-ribbon fan balances collapsibility during leg recovery with rigidity during drag-based propulsion, enabling full-body 96° turns in 50 milliseconds, with forward speeds of up to 120 body lengths per second—on par with fruit fly saccades in air. Drawing from this morphofunctional architecture, we engineered a 1-milligram elastocapillary fan integrated into an insect-scale robot. Experiments with both insects and robots confirmed that self-morphing fans improve thrust, braking, and maneuverability. Our findings link fan microstructure to controlled interfacial propulsion and establish design principles for compact, elastocapillary actuators in agile aquatic microrobots.

As the safety of a human body is the main priority while interacting with robots, the field of tactile sensors has expanded for acquiring tactile information and ensuring safe human–robot interaction (HRI). Existing lightweight and thin tactile sensors exhibit high performance in detecting their surroundings. However, unexpected collisions caused by malfunctions or sudden external collisions can still cause injuries to rigid robots with thin tactile sensors. In this study, we present a sensitive balloon sensor for contact sensing and alleviating physical collisions over a large area of rigid robots. The balloon sensor is a pressure sensor composed of an inflatable body of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and a highly sensitive and flexible strain sensor laminated onto it. The mechanical crack-based strain sensor with high sensitivity enables the detection of extremely small changes in the strain of the balloon. Adjusting the geometric parameters of the balloon allows for a large and easily customizable sensing area. The weight of the balloon sensor was approximately 2 g. The sensor is employed with a servo motor and detects a finger or a sheet of rolled paper gently touching it, without being damaged.

The agile and power-efficient locomotion of a water strider has inspired many water-walking devices. These bioinspired water strider robots generally adopt a DC motor to create a sculling trajectory of the driving leg. These robots are, thus, inevitably heavy with many supporting legs decreasing the velocity of the robots. There have only been a few attempts to employ smart materials despite their advantages of being lightweight and having high power densities. This paper proposes an artificial muscle-based water-walking robot capable of moving forward and turning with four degrees of freedom. A compliant amplified shape memory alloy actuator (CASA) used to amplify the strain of a shape memory alloy wire enables a wide sculling motion of the actuation leg with only four supporting legs to support the entire weight of the robot. Design parameters to increase the actuation strain of the actuator and to achieve a desired swing angle (80°) are analyzed. Finally, experiments to measure the forward speed and angular velocities of the robot are carried out to compare with other robots. The robot weighs only 0.236 g and has a maximum and average speed of 1.56, 0.31 body length per second and a maximum and average angular velocity of 145.05°/s and 14.72°/s.