This smooth little robotic robot glides smartly and …

Nature is a good source of inspiration for roboticists, but it is rare that nature’s elegance and genius can be replicated in any real way. Still, we are getting closer. This little bug-like robot is made of soft materials and weighs less than a gram, but it can move quickly and with some intelligence, and is robust enough to survive the blows of a fly swatter.

For the most part, little robots like this are compromises. For example, they can move quickly, but only with external energy. Or they can navigate intelligently, but only by remote control. Or they are energy efficient, but cannot move quickly or Smartly

The DEAnsect, named for being made of “dielectric elastomer actuators,” is an attempt to create a robot that combines locomotion, intelligence, and efficiency in one package, even if it’s just a little of each.

It moves on three small legs, each of which advances very slightly when an electrical current changes the shape of the elastomer they are made of, pushing the robot forward a bit. This happens many times per second, too fast for us to see it, and it gives the impression that the robot is sliding forward at a speed of 0.3 bodies per second. That’s not much compared to a cockroach or a spider, but it’s pretty good compared to other small, self-powered robots.

The efficiency and robustness of these parts is a new record for soft robotics, and the DEAnsect is strong enough to carry not just a battery but also some on-board electronics (which equates to about five times its own weight of 190 milligrams) that allows you to operate with some rudimentary logic. For example, by connecting a small optical sensor, the robot can be made to follow a black line and not drift onto a white surface.

He’s also capable of taking a bit of abuse, suitably in fly swatter form, as you can see from the gif at the top. Of course, you have to scrape it off the ground first, but it is very much to the credit of the robot that it can sneak away again without delay afterwards.

Naturally, there is not much a robot like this can do at the moment, but it is a promising achievement, nonetheless it shows several interesting ways to advance the field of soft robotics.

DEAnsect was created by Xiaobin Ji and Matthias Imboden at EPFL Soft Transducers Laboratory and the rest of his team there. The robot is described in an article published today in the journal Science Robotics.