Robots that move, sense and even coordinate with one another usually bring to mind tangled wires, circuit boards and humming motors. In a new study from the University of Oxford, all of that disappears. Instead, soft machines built from rubbery parts and air tubes come to life using only air pressure and clever design, with no electronics or software at all. These soft “fluidic robots” are described in the journal Advanced Materials. They can hop, crawl, shake and sort objects. They can even fall into a shared rhythm, like a tiny mechanical flock, without a central controller. Professor Antonio Forte, who leads the Robotic and Additive Design Laboratory (RADLab) at Oxford, put it simply: “We are excited to see that brain-less machines can spontaneously generate complex behaviours, decentralising functional tasks to the peripheries and freeing up resources for more intelligent tasks.” Fluidic Unit Operation. (CREDIT: Advanced Materials) How Air Powered Soft Robots Work Soft robots rely on flexible bodies instead of rigid frames. That makes them good at gripping fragile items, squeezing through tight gaps …