3D-printed frog swims using artificial muscles powered by light

A frog that takes nearly two minutes to swim about the length of a credit card is unlikely to make a splash at the next Amphibian Olympics. Then again, most frogs have the benefit of some 200 million years of evolution. This one was just hatched out of a 3D printer.

Built by chemist Brigitte Städler and PhD student Cecilie Ryberg from Aarhus University in Denmark, together with colleagues from the University of Luxembourg, the frog-shaped robot weighs less than a gram and swims without a motor, battery, or wires.

To move, a lamp supplies it with flashes of energy, pulsing near-infrared light onto half a dozen liquid crystal musclesattached to a pair of hind legs. Working as a unit, the muscle strands propelled the tiny swimmer across the surface of a water bath a distance of about 80 millimeters (3.1 in), taking 1 minute 54 seconds on...

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