Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adi5582
J. J. Bowkett, S. A. Chien, Y. Marchetti, J. Nash, D. P. Moreno, C. F. Basich, M. L. Gildner, D. I. Kim, J. A. Russino, D. Wang, J. P. de la Croix, G. Lim, C. T. Wagner, L. R. Shiraishi, P. Y. Twu, N. Z. Georgiev, B. J. Emanuel, M. E. Cameron, Y. Iwashita, K. P. Hand, C. B. Phillips, S. P. Tepsuporn, C. R. Mauceri, G. H. Tan-Wang, G. E. Reeves, P. G. Backes
{"title":"Autonomous surface sampling for the Europa Lander mission concept","authors":"J. J. Bowkett, S. A. Chien, Y. Marchetti, J. Nash, D. P. Moreno, C. F. Basich, M. L. Gildner, D. I. Kim, J. A. Russino, D. Wang, J. P. de la Croix, G. Lim, C. T. Wagner, L. R. Shiraishi, P. Y. Twu, N. Z. Georgiev, B. J. Emanuel, M. E. Cameron, Y. Iwashita, K. P. Hand, C. B. Phillips, S. P. Tepsuporn, C. R. Mauceri, G. H. Tan-Wang, G. E. Reeves, P. G. Backes","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.adi5582","DOIUrl":"10.1126/scirobotics.adi5582","url":null,"abstract":"<div >Europa, a moon of Jupiter, is a high-priority target for space exploration because of its potential to harbor life. A landed mission concept to collect and analyze samples for signs of life was developed over the past decade. Operationally, a critical challenge for such a mission is that the surface environment at the spatial scale of the lander is not well known, requiring that such a mission be capable of acquiring samples in a wide range of surface conditions. Furthermore, the 85.2-hour orbit of Europa around Jupiter limits direct-to-Earth communications to half the orbital period. Last, power constraints and charged-particle irradiation could limit the lifetime of such a mission to several months. This article describes an effort to develop sampling hardware and autonomous software to enable such a Europa surface mission. This multiyear effort leveraged development across multiple simulation and test-bed venues, culminating in a field campaign on the Matanuska Glacier, Alaska, USA, where a cross-disciplinary team demonstrated autonomous end-to-end sampling activities with representative lander hardware.</div>","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"10 102","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":26.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144104368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adw7660
Edoardo Milana,Cosimo Della Santina,Benjamin Gorissen,Philipp Rothemund
{"title":"Physical control: A new avenue to achieve intelligence in soft robotics.","authors":"Edoardo Milana,Cosimo Della Santina,Benjamin Gorissen,Philipp Rothemund","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.adw7660","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adw7660","url":null,"abstract":"Physical control embodies motion intelligence in soft robots via self-regulating oscillations, sequences, and reactions.","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"130 1","pages":"eadw7660"},"PeriodicalIF":25.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144114133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-05-21DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.ady5090
Robin R. Murphy
{"title":"The robots in the Val Kilmer movie Red Planet predated Perseverance and Ingenuity","authors":"Robin R. Murphy","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.ady5090","DOIUrl":"10.1126/scirobotics.ady5090","url":null,"abstract":"<div >A big-budget flop about terraforming Mars had a ground-aerial robot team predating Perseverance and Ingenuity.</div>","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"10 102","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":26.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144109014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Embodied manipulation with past and future morphologies through an open parametric hand design","authors":"Kieran Gilday, Chapa Sirithunge, Fumiya Iida, Josie Hughes","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.ads6437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.ads6437","url":null,"abstract":"A human-shaped robotic hand offers unparalleled versatility and fine motor skills, enabling it to perform a broad spectrum of tasks with precision, power, and robustness. Across the paleontological record and animal kingdom, we see a wide range of alternative hand and actuation designs. Understanding the morphological design space and the resulting emergent behaviors can not only aid our understanding of dexterous manipulation and its evolution but also assist with design optimization, achieving and ultimately surpassing human capabilities. Exploration of hand embodiment has, to date, been limited by challenges of accessibility in customizable hands in the real world and by the reality gap in simulation of complex interactions. We introduce an open parametric design that integrates techniques for simplified customization, fabrication, and control with design features to maximize behavioral diversity. Nonlinear rolling joints, anatomical tendon routing, and a low–degree-of-freedom modulating actuation system enable rapid production of single-piece 3D-printable hands without compromising dexterous behaviors. To demonstrate this, we evaluated the low-level behavior range and stability of the design, showing variable stiffness over two orders of magnitude. In addition, we fabricated three hand designs: human, mirrored human with two thumbs, and aye-aye hands. Manipulation tests evaluated the variation in each hand’s proficiency at handling diverse objects and demonstrated emergent behaviors unique to each design. Overall, we introduce diverse designs for robotic hands, provide a design space to compare and contrast different hand morphologies and structural configurations, and share a practical and open-source design for investigating embodied manipulation.","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":25.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143979629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.ady7192
Melisa Yashinski
{"title":"Neuroprosthesis converts brain activity to speech","authors":"Melisa Yashinski","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.ady7192","DOIUrl":"10.1126/scirobotics.ady7192","url":null,"abstract":"<div >A neuroprosthesis decodes short bits of neural activity and synthesizes speech synchronously with a user’s vocal intent.</div>","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"10 102","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":26.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143950617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adr4264
Tianqi Yue, Chenghua Lu, Kailuan Tang, Qiukai Qi, Zhenyu Lu, Loong Yi Lee, Hermes Bloomfield-Gadȇlha, Jonathan Rossiter
{"title":"Embodying soft robots with octopus-inspired hierarchical suction intelligence","authors":"Tianqi Yue, Chenghua Lu, Kailuan Tang, Qiukai Qi, Zhenyu Lu, Loong Yi Lee, Hermes Bloomfield-Gadȇlha, Jonathan Rossiter","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.adr4264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adr4264","url":null,"abstract":"Octopuses exploit an efficient neuromuscular hierarchy to achieve complex dexterous body manipulation, integrating sensor-rich suckers, in-arm embodied computation, and centralized higher-level reasoning. Here, we take inspiration from the hierarchical intelligence of the octopus and demonstrate how, by exploiting the fluidic energy and information capacity of simple suction cups, soft computational elements, and soft actuators, we can mimic key aspects of the neuromuscular structure of the octopus in soft robotic systems. The presented suction intelligence works at two levels: By coupling suction flow with local fluidic circuitry, soft robots can achieve octopus-like low-level embodied intelligence, including gently grasping delicate objects, adaptive curling, and encapsulating objects of unknown geometries, and by decoding the pressure response from a suction cup, robots can achieve multimodal high-level perception, including contact detection, classification of an environmental medium and surface roughness, and prediction of an interactive pulling force. As in octopuses, suction intelligence executes most of its computation within lower-level local fluidic circuitries, and minimum information is transmitted to the high-level decision-making of the “brain.” This development provides insights into octopus-inspired machine intelligence through low-cost, simple, and easy-to-integrate methods. The presented suction intelligence can be readily integrated into fluidic-driven soft robots to enhance their intelligence and reduce their computational requirement and can be applied widely, from industrial object handling and robotic manufacturing to robot-assisted harvesting and interventional health care.","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":25.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143979613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.ady2833
Amos Matsiko
{"title":"Adaptive active solids","authors":"Amos Matsiko","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.ady2833","DOIUrl":"10.1126/scirobotics.ady2833","url":null,"abstract":"<div >Active solids composed of connected building blocks are capable of adaptive locomotion and deformation.</div>","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"10 101","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":26.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143893077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adw8581
Noah J. Cowan, Robert J. Full
{"title":"Swimming in the “Matrix”: VR fish pass the Turing test using a simple control law for collective behavior","authors":"Noah J. Cowan, Robert J. Full","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.adw8581","DOIUrl":"10.1126/scirobotics.adw8581","url":null,"abstract":"<div >Immersive virtual reality reveals that a simple control model from fish schooling can be used to control autonomous vehicles.</div>","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"10 101","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":26.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143893061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adq6784
Liang Li, Máté Nagy, Guy Amichay, Ruiheng Wu, Wei Wang, Oliver Deussen, Daniela Rus, Iain D. Couzin
{"title":"Reverse engineering the control law for schooling in zebrafish using virtual reality","authors":"Liang Li, Máté Nagy, Guy Amichay, Ruiheng Wu, Wei Wang, Oliver Deussen, Daniela Rus, Iain D. Couzin","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.adq6784","DOIUrl":"10.1126/scirobotics.adq6784","url":null,"abstract":"<div >Revealing the evolved mechanisms that give rise to collective behavior is a central objective in the study of cellular and organismal systems. In addition, understanding the algorithmic basis of social interactions in a causal and quantitative way offers an important foundation for subsequently quantifying social deficits. Here, with virtual reality technology, we used virtual robot fish to reverse engineer the sensory-motor control of social response during schooling in a vertebrate model: juvenile zebrafish (<i>Danio rerio</i>). In addition to providing a highly controlled means to understand how zebrafish translate visual input into movement decisions, networking our systems allowed real fish to swim and interact together in the same virtual world. Thus, we were able to directly test models of social interactions in situ. A key feature of social response is shown to be single- and multitarget-oriented pursuit. This is based on an egocentric representation of the positional information of conspecifics and is highly robust to incomplete sensory input. We demonstrated, including with a Turing test and a scalability test for pursuit behavior, that all key features of this behavior are accounted for by individuals following a simple experimentally derived proportional derivative control law, which we termed “BioPD.” Because target pursuit is key to effective control of autonomous vehicles, we evaluated—as a proof of principle—the potential use of this simple evolved control law for human-engineered systems. In doing so, we found close-to-optimal pursuit performance in autonomous vehicle (terrestrial, airborne, and watercraft) pursuit while requiring limited system-specific tuning or optimization.</div>","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"10 101","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":26.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.science.org/doi/reader/10.1126/scirobotics.adq6784","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143893068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Science RoboticsPub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adr6125
Yichao Shi, James H. Pikul
{"title":"Achieving animal endurance in robots through advanced energy storage","authors":"Yichao Shi, James H. Pikul","doi":"10.1126/scirobotics.adr6125","DOIUrl":"10.1126/scirobotics.adr6125","url":null,"abstract":"<div >Bioinspired mobile robots move with comparable efficiency to their animal counterparts but lag by more than an order of magnitude in system-level energy density because of battery limitations. This Review quantifies this energy gap, evaluates hardware strengths and current battery weaknesses, and proposes benchmarking frameworks for future technologies. Using Spot as a case study, we identify the battery chemistries needed to match the energy storage in animals and propose technologies to unleash robotic endurance.</div>","PeriodicalId":56029,"journal":{"name":"Science Robotics","volume":"10 101","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":26.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143893033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}