They undertook the project in a lab established by assistant professor Daniel Preston at the George R.Brown School of Engineering. The lab specialises in soft robotic systems that use non-traditional materials instead of metal, hard plastics, and electronics. “We use all kinds of interesting new materials like hydrogels and elastomers that can be actuated by things like chemical reactions, pneumatics and light,” Preston said. “We even have some recent work on textiles and wearables.”

The team contrived a mechanism that employs the spider’s natural hydraulic system to move its muscles. Spiders contract a prosoma chamber in their head to send blood to their limbs, forcing them to extend. To reproduce this action, the researchers inserted the point of a needle into the chamber and secured it in place with a dab of superglue. A syringe was then attached to the needle, letting the researchers inject a small amount of air into the cavity. Just as they would have with a live spider, the legs extended when pressure was applied and contracted when pressure was relieved. The engineers said they used this mechanism on one ex-spider for about 1,000 open and close cycles, with the cadavers able to lift more than 130% of their own body weight. They used the necrobot to manipulate a circuit board, move objects, and lift another spider.

Preston said the necrobot offered potential use in pick-and-place tasks and repetitive tasks such as sorting or moving objects around at small scales and even in microelectronics assembly. “Another application could be deploying it to capture smaller insects in nature, because it’s inherently camouflaged,” said the study’s lead author Faye Yap. Preston added because the spider bodies were biodegradable, they would not add to the waste stream, a problem with traditional components. The engineers have uploaded a video to YouTube explaining how the necrobot works and a short clip of it in action.

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