Hygrobot: A self-locomotive ratcheted actuator powered by environmental humidity

Hygrobot: A self-locomotive ratcheted actuator powered by environmental humidity. Beomjune Shin et al (2018), Science Robotics https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.aar2629 Microrobots that are light and agile yet require no artificial power input can be widely used in medical, military, and industrial applications. As an actuation system to drive such robots, here we report a biologically inspired bilayer structure that harnesses the environmental humidity energy, with ratchets to rectify the motion. We nam