Animals have long been sources of inspiration for robotics and engineering. Their unique features, behaviors, and ways of moving are frequently mimicked and replicated; one lab at CMU is incorporating a fundamental animal feature into their nontraditional robot design: muscle and neurologic tissue.

Victoria Webster-Wood, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and leader of the Biohybrid and Organic Robotics Group (B.O.R.G), joins us to discuss her research in developing biohybrid and organic robots. In this episode, you will hear about Webster-Wood’s current research and how her team is integrating muscular and neurologic tissue into these robots of the future. If successful, this research could produce completely organic and programmable robots that would be able to exist in the natural world unlike any other robot today; with applications in environmental disaster response and prevention, search and rescue, and biomedical research, the future is very exciting for this technology.

For more information, please visit www.engineering.cmu.edu/borg.

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