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Wed 16 Jul 2025
A robotic platform inspired by California blackworms, known for tangling together into a moving blob, has been built by researchers at Harvard University.
When California blackworms are exposed to dry conditions or other environmental stressors they will clump together to form an entangled blob. Doing so helps conserve moisture and regulate temperature.
Just as quickly as they entangle, they can also disentangle when they sense danger, such as the approach of a predator.
A research team led by Harvard John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) used this blackworm behaviour as the inspiration for the design of a robotic platform that similarly features robotic worms that join together to accomplish tasks, such as crossing gaps or climbing walls.
“We look at the biological system and we say, ‘Look how cool this is,’” said Justin Werfel, senior research fellow who heads the Designing Emergence Laboratory at SEAS.
The soft, thin, worm-like threads are made from synthetic polymer materials that can quickly entangle and disentangle.
Eliza Grinnell - Harvard SEAS
Each foot-long robot worm is powered by an internal air chamber that when pressurised makes the robot curl up. When multiple robots curl up around each other, they become a blob much like their real-life counterparts.
The mass of entangled bots can then move around as a cohesive unit, operating on both land and in water.
According to the researchers, the project’s long-term goal is to study the dynamics of group behaviours that emerge from physical entanglement. This could then be used to create artificial systems that could, for example, explore large spaces, cross gaps, move objects and climb up buildings.
Werfel said: “Is the physical entanglement not just the means of cohesion, but also a channel for communication and coordination? Here’s a platform that we can use to study those kinds of things.”
The team also hopes to develop an untethered version that uses microfluidics to guide its actions. Eventually, blobs of many independent robots will move through natural environments with full autonomy.