MIT engineers have created transparent, gel-based robots that move when water is pumped in and out, enabling them to perform a number of fast, forceful tasks, including kicking a ball underwater, as well as grabbing and releasing live fish.
They’re made entirely from hydrogel, which is a rubbery, nearly transparent material composed mostly of water, and each one is an assemblage of hollow, precisely designed structures, connected to rubbery tubes. When water is pumped into them, the structures quickly inflate in orientations that enable the bots to curl up or stretch out. Since the robots are both powered by and made almost entirely of water, they have similar visual and acoustic properties to water, making them virtually invisible.
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