Shapeshifting, Squishable Robots Inspired by Insects Could One Day Crawl Over Airplanes and Through Pipes

If you've ever watched a spider disappear into a crack that looks impossibly small, you've probably marveled at its agility and flexibility. Or maybe you were just happy it went somewhere besides inside your house. Nature seems to have perfected the art of movement in confined spaces, which is something engineers are still trying to master.

That's where Kaushik Jayaram, assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, comes in. Backed by a $650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and $1.4 million from the Air Force Research Laboratory, Jayaram is developing insect-inspired robots that can change their shape on command. His goal is to create tiny, agile, and adaptable robots capable of going where humans and machines cannot.

From Paperclip-Size Robots to Shapeshifting Swarms

Jayaram's earlier creation, the mCLARI, is a four-legged robot so small it can fit on a quarter and weighs less than half a penny. But even this microbot faces limitations when navigating complex environments. To make these systems more versatile, Jayaram's lab is working on robots that can actively alter their shape, stretching long and narrow to move quickly, or flattening wide for stability.

"If you want to be really fast, you can choose to be long and skinny," Jayaram explains. "If you want to be stable, then you can be wide. We need robots to be smart and shapeshift."

Unlike passive designs that compress to fit an opening, these future robots will transform in real time using pulses of electricity. The same static-electricity effect that makes a balloon stick to your hair will also enable them to walk up walls and even across ceilings.

Learning From Spiders

Inside Jayaram's lab, inspiration crawls on eight legs. Among the circuit boards and soldering irons are wolf spiders (my nightmare), fishing spiders, and crevice weaver spiders. These species can sprint, climb, and squeeze into the tightest crevices—all skills that roboticists hope to replicate mechanically.

By mimicking both the agility and flexibility of these spiders, Jayaram aims to overcome one of robotics' long-standing trade-offs: machines that are fast tend to be rigid, while flexible systems often lack power. The lab's research explores how to combine both qualities into a single, intelligent system that can adapt like a living organism.

Potential Applications

While still in early stages, the vision is clear. Imagine swarms of paperclip-sized robots crawling through aircraft engines to inspect for defects or maneuvering through underground conduits to locate damaged electrical wiring. In disaster zones, similar robots could slip through rubble to search for survivors or assess structural integrity before human responders enter.

The technology could even find use in spacecraft maintenance, where adaptability and lightweight construction are very important. With funding from both the NSF and Air Force Research Laboratory, the research points toward eventual use in aerospace, defense, and industrial maintenance environments that demand precision in hard-to-reach spaces.