Deepest operational soft robot

The deepest operational soft robot actuated successfully at a depth of 10,900 metres in the Mariana Trench, and was achieved by researchers at Zhejiang University led by Guorui Li, Xiangping Chen and Fanghao Zhou, as published on 3 March 2021.

Soft robots are robots made of flexible materials comparable to the materials found in living organisms. They are often engineered based on the way that living organisms move and operate.

The design of this soft robot is inspired by the deepest known fish, the Mariana snailfish. It actuated successfully at a depth of 10,900 m in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean, self-powered by an onboard lithium-ion battery. The soft robot flapped its fins for 45 minutes at this depth.