Aquatic microorganism could inspire soft robots able to move fast in narrow spaces

(Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati) Euglena cells are unicellular organisms that spend most of their time on swimming by beating their flagellum. Sometimes, Euglena performs harmoniously coordinated cell body deformation, in a behavior known as metaboly. A team of researchers from SISSA and OGS in Trieste, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, and UPC in Barcelona shows that metaboly allows Euglena to crawl remarkably fast in narrow spaces. This feature could inspire new applications in soft robotics.

Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - February 21, 2019 Category: Biology Source Type: news