Our muscles are nature's actuators. The sinewy tissue is what generates the forces that make our bodies move. In recent years, engineers have used real muscle tissue to actuate "biohybrid robots" made ...

It’s a bizarre sight: With a short burst of light, a sponge-shaped robot scoots across a tiled surface. Flipped on its back, it repeatedly twitches as if doing sit-ups. By tinkering with the light’s ...