Scientists at the Harvard University have 3D-printed a robot which they claim has the combined advantage of a machine made of steel, other hard materials, and the complexity of soft robots. The team published its findings in the journal Science on Friday.

Senior author Robert J. Wood said the latest design offers a solution to the major engineer challenge that the Harvard Gazette claims has plagued soft robotics i.e. the integration of rigid and soft materials.

Wood said the vision for the field of soft robotics is to create robots that are entirely soft. But he said due to some practical reason, robot made by them had some or the other rigid components.

“This robot is a demonstration of a method to integrate the rigid components with the body of the soft robot through a gradient of material properties, eliminating an abrupt hard-to-soft transition that is often a failure point”, he said.

The new combustion-powered robot has two main parts, first a soft plunger-like body with three pneumatic legs and a rigid core module which containing power and control components.

Makers of the new bot said the core module of the bot is shielded with a semisoft shield created using a 3D printer.

To make a movement, the robot inflates its pneumatic legs to tilt its body in the direction it wants to go. Then butane and oxygen are mixed and ignited, exploding the robot into the air.

Harvard boffins believe the new ‘Hopping robot’ reaches up to six times its body height in vertical leaps and half its body width in lateral jumps.

When in fields the robot’s hopping motion could be an effective way to move quickly and easily around obstacles, said scientists.

Nicholas Bartlett, first author of the paper, said in a statement that an extraordinary thing about this robot is that they lend themselves nicely to abuse. Robot’s stiffness gradient allows it to survive the impact of dozens of landings and to withstand the combustion event required for jumping.