This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. Does the name Big Dog ring a bell? It's the name of that horse-sized robot from the company Boston Dynamics. You know what I'm talking about. It's that creepy robot that can jog and trot and clam over rubble, slip on ice, and get right back up again. Maybe you've seen it on YouTube. It's kind of scary. Well, the company's newest creation, the Spot Mini is smaller, about the size of a Rottweiler. And it can open doors by itself. And this week we watched with some concern a new video in which the Spot Mini fends off a human handler trying to interfere with the task at hand, just like a mischievous dog would.

These robots are obviously inspired by the movements and mechanics and behaviors of real four-legged creatures.

But they're made of rigid metal and plastic.

Well, why not take inspiration from the whole animal?

Try to recreate its muscles and its nerves, too.

Make a robot that's partly a living thing.

That's the goal of my next guests,

who create so-called bio-hybrid robots, soft robots, squishy, flexible things

that may someday be a whole new lineage in the robotic family tree, and maybe

a bit more lovable, too.

Rita Raymond is a postdoctoral fellow.

I'm sorry, a fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Welcome back, Rita.

Thank you, Ira.

It's great to be back.

Vicki Webster Wood is a postdoctoral research fellow at Case Western Reserve University.

And Cleveland, welcome, Vicki.

Hi, Iira.

Thanks for having me.

You're welcome.

Barry Trimmer is editor-in-chief of the journal Soft Robotics and Professor of Biology at Tufts

University.

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