Jello that moves 
This research by led by chemist George M. Whitesides has accomplished much in the field of soft polymer robotics. This robot shown is am all-polymer robot that can undulate, crawl, and navigate obstacles. The control wires leading off the back are the only things that provide input to the structured jello that is then able to crawl its way across the floor in a very organic way, mimicking a worm and primitive crawlers.
+70This is one of the most versatile robot I’ve ever seen. It has 6 legs, and interchangeable leg pads to do everything from driving around to climbing nets to picking up objects using its legs. The robot can even drop down to only a few inches off the floor and “crawl” forward to get under obstacles. Currently, the system is remote controlled, but imagine the possibility of having many of these robots autonomously map out an environment…
+30Biological systems, from multicellular organisms to social insects (“superorganisms”), get tremendous mileage from the cooperation of vast numbers of cheap, unreliable, and limited individuals. This lab builds modular robots, robot swarms, sensor networks, programmable materials to achieve the same end goal of creating swarms of cooperative cheap robots. This video shows the single component of the swarm.
+30We all know that trash is one of the world’s biggest environmental problems: trash is finding its way out of landfills and into oceans, where chemicals hurt the environment and the animals living in it. In the city of Queens, however, a smarter solution has been developed.
One of the main reasons why trash isn’t being put into landfills is because the trash cans have a limited capacity, and the dump trucks can’t pick it up fast enough. So, to fix this… some people invented a robot trash can!
From the outside, the trash can looks regular, a rectangular prism where people throw their trash. But using a solar panel for power, the insides of the trash can are in far more motion. Inside the robot, the machine compresses trash thrown inside into small cubes. It’s a concept that flew straight out of Wall-E! With this new technique, trash cans can fit over eight times more trash, and hopefully this will alleviate some of the trash problem that we have today.
+30I’m not going to lie. When I heard about it… I thought it was a joke. What use could a tentacle arm possibly have? Then, the European Robotics Commission funds the project and I take it a bit more seriously
But what exactly is the appeal of having an octopus? The conceptual design for the robot includes the ability to squeeze through a small pipe by collapsing its body to a tiny cylinder, just like a real octopus. Furthermore, the project aims to mimic other useful things that octopi can do, like grasp objects dynamically and change color to match their surroundings.
+60Imagine if you took pixels off a computer screen, zoomed in, and could watch as they moved in complex patterns in space, changing color all the while. This is what the SENSEable City Laboratory and ARES Lab have been working on.
Called Flyfire, the single “pixels” are single gyroscopes that have a controlled flight. They also change colors, and are incredibly coordinated. They’re able to act together and create two-dimensional pictures. They can also organize themselves into three-dimensional patterns, such as waves, hills, and more.
+100Hexapods are robots that can walk on six legs. And as if that wasn’t hard enough to build, consultant engineer Kåre Halvorsen in Norway set out build his “MorpHex” — a creepy-looking little robot that is not only able to walk, but can fold its legs in to form a ball and roll around.
The result? Pure awesomeness.
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