Researchers have developed a technology that lets a user move a small robot by bending and straightening a finger. The user can also pick up and move objects while checking the images and contact information that the robot sends back. The system combines artificial muscles, a camera, and tactile sensors in a small soft robot modeled on a beetle. It is expected to be used in remote tasks, such as inspecting narrow spaces that are difficult for people to reach and retrieving small objects.

KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on October 13 that a research team led by Professor Sang Ouk Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has developed a small soft robot called “BeetleBot.” The team worked with the research groups of Professor Wei Gao at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Professor Hirotaka Sato at NTU.

When people grasp an object, they use their eyes to find where it is and the sensation in their fingertips to check the contact. A robot that adjusts its work to its surroundings also needs its movement and sensing functions to be connected. Soft robots are built from soft, deformable materials. In these robots, however, actuation, sensing, and control are often built as separate parts or depend on complex devices. This has made it difficult to integrate several functions into a small robot.

The researchers designed the robot to walk and grip objects using artificial muscles that contract in a similar way to biological muscles. They linked these muscles with a camera, a pressure sensor, and a stretchable sensor patch worn on the finger. With this setup, the user can control the robot while checking its surroundings and its contact with objects.
The team first analyzed how the leg muscles of a beetle relate to the movement of its joints. They used the results to decide where to place BeetleBot’s artificial muscles and how to design its legs. The artificial muscles were made by 3D printing a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE), a polymer that contracts when heated. They were combined with an actuation module that produces heat from electricity. The muscles in each part of the robot can be operated independently, and the order in which they operate can be adjusted. This allows the robot to walk forward and turn left or right.

The researchers also built a soft gripper based on the mandibles that beetles use to hold their prey. The gripper combines artificial muscles with a capacitive pressure sensor, so it can grip an object and detect the contact. When the artificial muscles contract, the gripper closes around the object. The pressure sensor then detects the pressure applied during contact. When the object presses on the sensor, the distance between its internal electrodes changes, and so does its capacitance. The sensor uses this change to determine the contact state.

To control the robot, the team used a stretchable sensor patch whose electrical resistance changes as the finger moves. When the finger bends and stretches the patch, the conductive paths formed by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) inside it change, which changes the resistance signal. The researchers sorted these signals into four commands: move forward, turn left, turn right, and grip an object. The commands are sent to BeetleBot over Bluetooth Low Energy, and the robot carries out the matching action.

The user views the robot’s surroundings through a small onboard camera and checks contact with objects using data from the pressure sensor in the gripper. Based on this information, the user decides on the next action and sends a command with a finger movement. In this way, the system provides bidirectional feedback. Commands go from the user to the robot, and the information the robot detects goes back to the user.

Using this control method, the researchers showed that BeetleBot could avoid obstacles, approach a target object, and then grip and carry it. By connecting artificial muscle-based walking and gripping, visual and tactile sensing, and user control in a single system, the study shows that small soft robots can carry out practical tasks.
The results are expected to support the development of soft robots for remote tasks, such as checking conditions and retrieving small objects in spaces that are hard for people to access. Before the robot can be used more widely, for example in environmental exploration or industrial equipment inspection, the actuation speed, energy efficiency, and power supply of the artificial muscles will need to be improved. Its performance will also need to be tested in real working environments.

“This study expands the potential uses of soft robots by connecting the movement of artificial muscles, sensing, and user control in a single system,” said Professor Sang Ouk Kim. He added that he expects the joint research with Caltech and other partners to contribute to soft robots that can work in spaces that are difficult for people to access.
“A key feature of this work is the bidirectional feedback, which links the information detected by the robot to the user’s next action,” said Professor Inho Kim of Sungkyunkwan University, the first author. He added that he plans to increase the actuation speed and energy efficiency of the artificial muscles and improve control methods that use sensory information, so that the robot can be developed into a soft robot that works in a variety of environments.

Professor Inho Kim earned his Ph.D. from the KAIST Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Sungkyunkwan University, and he took part in the study as first author while working as a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech. Professor Sang Ouk Kim of KAIST and Professor Wei Gao of Caltech are co-corresponding authors. The results were published in Science Advances on August 19, 2026.

※ Paper title: “BeetleBot: An integrated bioinspired soft robot for multimodal sensing and adaptive interaction,” DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeg8849
This research was supported by the Heritage Medical Research Institute, the Meta Caltech Research Award, the National Research Foundation of Korea (RS-2024-00411904, RS-2025-00521316, RS-2025-25442577), and the Singapore Ministry of Education (RG140/20, RG82/24).