Michael Ishida

University of Cambridge | Cam · Department of Engineering

A fundamental challenge of pneumatically powered soft robotic devices is the scalability of fluidic control systems to address each actuated degree of freedom, as the required electromechanical valves are bulky and expensive. Previous solutions have compromised the reprogrammability and/or the bandwidth of the fluidic system. This article describes...

Some marine animals, such as sea stars, have developed versatile adhesive appendages that can be used for a variety of behaviors including sticking to surfaces, manipulating objects, and locomoting. These appendages couple reversible adhesion capabilities with muscular structures that can do work on the world while still being soft enough to confor...

Reversible adhesion provides robotic systems with unique capabilities, including wall climbing and walking underwater, and yet the control of adhesion continues to pose a challenge. Directional adhesives have begun to address this limitation by providing adhesion when loaded in one direction and releasing easily when loaded in the opposite directio...

Many existing rigid underwater robots use propellers to create thrust. These traditional robots are widely used because they are capable of moving large payloads at high speeds through open water. However, the movement patterns exhibited by soft underwater organisms suggest that there are alternative locomotion methods that robots can use to be mor...

The compliance and conformability of soft robots provide inherent advantages when working around delicate objects or in unstructured environments. However, rapid locomotion in soft robotics is challenging due to the slow propagation of motion in compliant structures, particularly underwater. Cephalopods overcome this challenge using jet propulsion...

Existing platforms for underwater exploration and inspection are often limited to traversing open water and must expend large amounts of energy to maintain a position inflow for long periods of time. Many benthic animals overcome these limitations using legged locomotion and have different hydrodynamic profiles dictated by different body morphologi...