{"id":230497,"date":"2026-02-04T05:25:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/a-programmable-lego-like-material-for-robots-emulates-lifes-flexibility"},"modified":"2026-02-04T05:25:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:25:05","slug":"a-programmable-lego-like-material-for-robots-emulates-lifes-flexibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/a-programmable-lego-like-material-for-robots-emulates-lifes-flexibility","title":{"rendered":"A programmable, Lego-like material for robots emulates life\u2019s flexibility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/a-programmable-lego-like-material-for-robots-emulates-lifes-flexibility3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mechanical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a proof-of-concept method for programming mechanical properties into solid Lego-like building blocks. By controlling the solidity of hundreds of individual cells in specific patterns, the approach could allow futuristic robotics to alter their mechanical properties and functionalities on the fly.<\/p>\n<p>In their initial tests, the researchers showed how a tail-like 3D beam with various configurations can move a robotic fish through water along different paths with the same motor activity. The team envisions <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-05-customizable-chips-mimic-real-life.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\" target=\"_blank\">miniaturized versions<\/a> of the technology that could, for example, maneuver through blood vessels to survey their health or even reconfigure to form an adaptive stent.<\/p>\n<p>The research <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.aed9698\" target=\"_blank\">appears<\/a> in the journal Science Advances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mechanical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a proof-of-concept method for programming mechanical properties into solid Lego-like building blocks. By controlling the solidity of hundreds of individual cells in specific patterns, the approach could allow futuristic robotics to alter their mechanical properties and functionalities on the fly. In their initial tests, the researchers showed how [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1495,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-health","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}