20 May 2025

Worms and Turtles Robots

The director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory thinks tomorrow’s intelligent physical machines could be something radically different than humanoid robots. Researchers built a robot out of sausage casing (and a small magnet) that could theoretically be eaten and then perform small-scale non-invasive surgeries.

A person holding a robot in a swimming pool

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Another project is a robotic sea turtle named Crush, designed to help monitor sea life, which uses silicone flippers to maneuver around delicate coral reefs. Despite these advancements, building and designing effective robots is still a very slow, iterative process. AI helped design a three-fingered robotic hand that can operate a syringe.

More information:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/forget-humanoids-at-mit-worms-and-turtles-are-inspiring-a-new-generation-of-robots-3abf7d5f