NEWS & VIEWS

L. K. SANDERS, R. TRUBY, M. WEHNER, R. WOOD & J. LEWIS/HARVARD UNIV.

For News & Views online, go to

nature.com/newsandviews

Figure 1 | The octobot. Wehner etal.3 have made an octopus-shaped robot that is constructed completely from soft materials. The body houses a liquid-fuel supply
and a fluidic system that controls a cyclic pattern of leg movements. Actuators that cause the legs to lift are visible as purple rectangles in the legs. Scale bar, 10mm.
ROBOT I CS

Generation soft
Meet the octobot, the first robot to be made entirely from soft materials. Powered by a chemical reaction and controlled by a
fluidic logic circuit, it heralds a generation of soft robots that might surpass conventional machines. See Letter p.451
B A R B A R A M A Z Z O L A I & V I R G I L I O M AT T O L I

obots are typically used in manufacturing contexts that involve well-structured

environments. These situations allow
them to move following predefined pro
cedures, limiting interactions with human
operators for safety reasons. But if these
machines were moved into real environments
outside factories, they would have to cope
with uncertain situations, react and adapt to
changing conditions, and interact safely with
living organisms, including humans1 tough
problems to solve using conventional technology made from hard materials. Robots made
from soft, deformable materials2 would be
better able to grasp and manipulate unknown
objects, and to move on unstructured and
rough terrains, and might be less hazardous to people. On page451, Wehner etal.3
present the first robot that completely lacks

rigid structures and control systems.

Soft body parts are important in many natural
organisms. Animals such as squid, starfish and
worms are composed almost entirely of soft
materials and liquids, which increases their
adaptability and robustness. There is therefore
a growing belief that soft materials might help
robotics technology to go beyond its current
capabilities, by allowing robots to elongate,
squeeze, climb and grow. For example, soft
robotic arms inspired by octopuses can elongate4, and soft robots that mimic caterpillars
can roll and jump5.
A notable attempt to develop a fully soft
robot was reported6 in 2011 by workers from
the same research group as that of Wehner and
colleagues. In that case, the robot itself was
composed exclusively of soft materials, but
a conventional pump-and-valve system was
used to implement (actuate) different types of
locomotion pneumatically, and was connected

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to the robot through cables. Wehner and

colleagues now push the technological boundaries further, because not only are their robots
body and actuation units soft, but so also are
the control system and power source, which
are integrated into the robot. This makes it the
first completely soft robot capable of operating
without being tethered by cables.
The octopus-shaped robot dubbed the
octobot by the authors (Fig.1) has eight
arms moved by a pneumatic mechanism
that relies on the expansion of embedded,
inflatable compartments working as actuators. These actuators are integrated into a
fluidicpneumatic network powered by a
liquid fuel (an aqueous solution of hydrogen
peroxide). The fuel passes through reaction
chambers that contain a platinum-based catalyst, which causes the hydrogen peroxide to
decompose. This decomposition produces
pressurized oxygen that inflates the actuators,

NEWS & VIEWS RESEARCH

thus generating the arm movements.
Wehner etal. control the sequence of the
octobots arm movements using a completely
soft fluidic circuit based on a system of valves
that act as elements of logic gates. The circuit
creates an oscillation that converts the inflow
of pressurized fuel from the fuel storage chamber into outflows that alternate between different reaction chambers, until the system
runs out of fuel. The octobot therefore repeats
cycles of movements in which it first lifts four
of its arms while lowering the other four, and
then performs the reverse manoeuvre (see
go.nature.com/2b3cn3s). The whole of the
robots body, including the fluidic circuit, is
made of silicone-based materials that have
different mechanical properties, tailored to
the functional requirements of the various
subsystems.
The realization of autonomous soft robots
will require the integration of different mater
ials and functionalities, such as actuation,
powering and logic; the octobot represents
the minimal system that demonstrates the
potential of this approach. To achieve the
required integration, Wehner and colleagues
used a combination of advanced fabrication
techniques including micro-moulding7, soft
lithography8 and multi-material embedded
3D printing9 to produce rubbery structures
embedded with fluidic channels, spanning
several orders of magnitude in length scales.
Despite its apparent complexity, the customizability of this fabrication process allowed the
authors to validate design modifications using
a quick trial-and-error approach, so that the
final device was rapidly optimized.
Wehner and colleagues use of soft materials
and continuum deformations continuous
bending of the arms to generate movement,
rather than motion created by rigid structures
connected by rotational joints paves the
way for further scientific and technological
developments. The next steps are to develop
computational control systems (such as
more-sophisticated fluidic circuits) that allow
a greater range of movement; to define new
design rules for soft robots; and to adopt and
improve manufacturing technologies.
Other challenges remain. For example, the
forces that soft robots can exert on the environment might be limited, potentially restricting
their applications. Moreover, the use of fluidic
logic circuits as control systems, rather than
conventional electronics, might limit the complexity of the behaviours that can be generated.
A greater understanding of the properties of
soft materials and how they interact with
control systems and the environment is also
needed, to produce desired robotic behaviour
in real contexts10.
Although soft robotics is still in its infancy,
it holds great promise for several applications,
such as servicing and inspecting machinery,
search-and-rescue operations, and exploration. Soft robots might also open up new

approaches to improving wellness and quality

of life. Soft endoscopes that allow omni
directional bending, elongation and tunable
stiffening are already a reality11, as are soft
orthotic devices used for ankle and foot
rehabilitation12. Wehner and colleagues findings might help to guide research in these
directions, contributing to the pillars of
knowledge that will support the edifice of this
new discipline.
Barbara Mazzolai and Virgilio Mattoli are
at the Center for Micro-BioRobotics,
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia,
56025 Pontedera, Pisa, Italy.
e-mail: barbara.mazzolai@iit.it

1. Pfeifer, R., Lungarella, M. & Iida, F. Science 318,

10881093 (2007).
2. Rus, D. & Tolley, M. T. Nature 521, 467475 (2015).
3. Wehner, M. et al. Nature 536, 451455 (2016).
4. Mazzolai, B., Margheri, L., Cianchetti, M., Dario, P. &
Lasch, C. Bioinspir. Biomim. 7, 025005 (2012).
5. Lin, H.-T., Leisk, G. G. & Trimmer, B. Bioinspir.
Biomim. 6, 026007 (2011).
6. Shepherd, R. F. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108,
2040020403 (2011).
7. Heckele, M. & Schomburg, W. K. J. Micromech.
Microeng. 14, R1R14 (2004)
8. Qin, D., Xia, Y. & Whitesides, G. M. Nature Protocols
5, 491502 (2010).
9. Wu, W., DeConinck, A. & Lewis, J. A. Adv. Mater. 23,
H178H183 (2011).
10. Paul, C. Robot. Auton. Syst. 54, 619630 (2006).
11. Ranzani, T., Gerboni, G., Cianchetti, M. & Menciassi, A.
Bioinspir. Biomim. 10, 035008 (2015).
12. Park, Y.-L. et al. Bioinspir. Biomim. 9, 016007 (2014).

CA N C ER ME TA B OL I S M

Friendly neighbours
feed tumour cells
In pancreatic cancer, neighbouring non-cancerous cells degrade their own
proteins through a process called autophagy and release amino acids that are
then taken up and used by the cancer cells. See Letter p.479
J U R R E J . K A M P H O R S T & E YA L G O T T L I E B

he cancer pancreatic ductal adeno

carcinoma (PDAC) has a poor prognosis, and is an area of intense biomedical
research. Previous studies1,2 have shown that
PDAC has a growth-promoting effect on
pancreatic stellate cells in the surrounding
connective tissue, and these cells reciprocate
by supporting tumour growth and spread. On
page479, Sousa etal.3 investigate the possibility that pancreatic stellate cells directly provide
tumour cells with nutrients, in studies using
mice and human pancreatic cells.
A key feature of PDAC is desmoplasia, in
which the tumour becomes enmeshed and
surrounded by dense, scar-like tissue1,4. As
well as the tumour cells, desmoplasia involves
other cell types, including pancreatic stellate
cells, which are mainly responsible for the
condition, and immune cells. Desmoplasia is
a serious medical concern, because it forms a
barrier to treatment with chemotherapeutic
drugs as a result of poor blood perfusion into
the tumour5. Paradoxically, desmoplasia is promoted by the release of signalling factors by
the tumour, even though it also impedes the
tumours blood supply and hence its access to
oxygen, glucose and other nutrients.
How can tumour cells obtain sufficient
food and energy in the resulting nutrientpoor conditions? Sousa etal. showed that
when PDAC cells were grown invitro with
either pancreatic stellate cells or even in the

solution in which the stellate cells had been

previously grown, oxygen consumption by
the PDAC cells increased. This indicates that
factors from the stellate cells can stimulate the
activity of energy-producing organelles called
mitochondria. Sousa and colleagues found that
the increased mitochondrial activity is due to
tumour consumption of the amino acid alanine, which is released at a high rate by the
stellate cells.
The authors used alanine labelled with
heavy carbon isotopes to trace the fate of
this imported amino acid in tumour cells.
Surprisingly, they found that alanine had an
unusual metabolic fate in PDAC cells beyond
its normal role in protein synthesis. When
taken up by the cells, alanine can be metabolized to pyruvate in the aqueous intracellular
region known as the cytosol. However, the
authors found that instead it went primarily
into the mitochondrial pool of metabolite
molecules (Fig.1).
Pyruvate is a key molecule in the mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid cycle, which generates
cellular energy and feeds into biosynthetic
pathways such as lipid synthesis. It is usually
generated by glucose metabolism in a process
called glycolysis. Another potential source
of pyruvate is alanine transamination, in
which pyruvate is produced by the removal
of nitrogen from alanine. Alanine transamination can occur in the cytosol or the
mitochondria.
Sousa et al. found that the alanine

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