Soft robots might very well revolutionize surgery and search and rescue operations. But they've already forever changed how we handle seasonal gourds.At least, that's what you're looking at in this demo video for a new adaptive gripping platform from Soft Robotics Inc., a Boston-based start up specializing in "rubbery robots" that can be could be used during surgery and various other biomedical applications.
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"This platform is able to handle tasks ranging from the incredibly delicate manipulation of a mushroom or pastry liner to unstructured environments where objects may be wet, submerged, sharp, cluttered, or occluded by nearby obstacles," according to the company, whose founders recently released an open-source soft robotics toolkit.Time will tell if this kind of lightweight platform will truly be able to scale. One thing's for sure: flexy, squishy service 'bots are going to take some getting used to.