Bio-inspired impact-resistant and energy-absorbing materials: From biological structures to engineering applications
March 2026
In critical engineering sectors such as aerospace, automotive crashworthiness, infrastructure protection, and personal protective equipment (PPE), developing lightweight materials that combine high...
Magnetic soft robots in biomedicine: From remote actuation to diagnostic-therapeutic integrated systems
March 2026
Magnetic soft robots, created by embedding magnetic components in soft polymer matrices, represent significant progress in minimally invasive biomedical platforms. These systems navigate through narrow...
Compliant actuators that mimic biological muscle performance with applications in a highly biomimetic robotic arm
January 2025
This paper endeavours to bridge the existing gap in muscular actuator design for ligament-skeletal-inspired robots, thereby fostering the evolution of these robotic systems. We introduce two novel compliant...
Bioinspired design for solar-driven evaporation and atmospheric water harvesting toward sustainable freshwater production
June 2026
Freshwater scarcity has stimulated growing interest in sustainable water-acquisition technologies. Among them, solar-driven interfacial evaporation and atmospheric water harvesting represent two complementary...
Digital twin construction for biomimetic materials
June 2026
Digital twins connect physical systems with virtual models through data acquisition, simulation, optimization and feedback. Although this paradigm has been widely developed in industrial design and...
Passive thermal management: From biological skins to bioinspired surfaces
June 2026
Biological surfaces mediate continuous energy exchange with the environment, and their optical, thermal, and structural properties have been refined through evolution to balance thermoregulation with...
Cellulose aerogels in water pollution treatment: Preparation, applications and mechanism
July 2025
Water pollution remains one of the most pressing global challenges, driving an urgent need for advanced sustainable treatment materials. Derived from cellulose, the most abundant natural polymer on...
Addressing bacterial threats in a post-antibiotic era: Bioinspired strategies for antibacterial surface design
July 2025
The advent of antibiotics revolutionized the management of bacterial infections, yet their clinical efficacy is catastrophically undermined by the global emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)....
Nature-Inspired Multiscale Architectures for High-Flux Two-Phase Cooling
Available online 10 August 2026
High-flux two-phase cooling is essential for high-power electronics, data centers, aerospace systems and advanced energy devices, yet its performance remains constrained by nucleation loss, flooding,...
A review of 3D-printed magnetic materials: Material-process-magnetization-application
June 2026
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is transforming magnetic materials from conventionally shaped components into architected systems whose geometry, composition, and magnetization can be programmed together....
Kinematic analysis and drive control of a bionic multi-muscle soft robot
March 2026
Soft robots have been widely applied in various fields due to their excellent environmental adaptability. However, their kinematic modeling and motion control remain challenging research areas. This...
Performance study of the evolved cathode flow field via topology optimization for proton exchange membrane fuel cell
March 2026
Aiming at the issues of uneven mass transfer and excessive pressure drop in conventional flow channels of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), this study integrates topology optimization with...
Fault-tolerant control of a mole cricket-inspired quadruped robot with functional arms under single-leg loss
March 2026
Loss of leg function in quadruped robots often leads to severe mobility degradation in complex environments. Inspired by the effective forelimb utilization of the oriental mole cricket, this paper proposes...
Elephant-trunk-whisker-inspired porous electronic fiber with engineered mechanical properties for distributed tactile sensing
March 2026
Flexible tactile sensors are essential for robotics and health monitoring, yet they often face challenges related the complexity of multi-electrode wiring and the inherent trade-off between sensing...
Bioinspired crescent-shaped textures from the chela of Procambarus clarkii for reducing pipe penetration resistance in muddy environments
Available online 11 August 2026
Penetration resistance during pipe installation in muddy sediments significantly limits operational efficiency and increases energy consumption in offshore engineering, cable laying, and deep-sea sampling....
Bioinspired dry adhesives: From challenging surface adhesion to controllable release
June 2026
Bioinspired dry adhesive technology, with the gecko as a central model, leveraging its unique advantages of residue-free adhesion, reversibility, and self-cleaning, holds significant potential for applications...
Bioinspired field-controlled adhesion: Mechanisms, design strategies and applications
June 2026
Animals have evolved over millions of years to support locomotion, attachment, and stable residence across diverse surfaces, offering rich biomimetic models for developing artificial interfaces with...
Dual-gradient metamaterials: Breaking the sensitivity–range trade-off in piezoelectric sensing
Available online 16 July 2026
Additive manufacturing of bionic interfaces: From conceptual understanding to renewable energy applications
January 2025
Bionic interfaces exhibit multiscale features with various functions that reduce energy consumption and produce renewable resources to support life, triggering them an emerging area of technological...
High-performance mechanical sensors inspired by the slit perception structure of biological receptors
July 2025
The combination of flexible sensors and bionic innovative design has become an important direction for the development of intelligent sensing technology. To this end, this paper systematically describes...
Machine learning endows a switchable adhesive with self-perception functionality
Available online 15 July 2026
Bio-inspired wet/lubricious/adhesive soft matter and performance control in-between
January 2025
Nature evolves soft but structural architectures with typical wet/lubricous/adhesive behavior, as well as tunable interface functionalities, such as superhydrophilicity, superhydrophobic, superlubricity,...
Sundoli: A necro(w)bot with multi-stiffness joints built using geared mechanical metastructures
July 2025
In this communication, we design and analyse Sundoli, a necrobot (a bionically engineered robot using decreased animal parts). Sundoli is manufactured using a crow endoskeleton, supported and rearticulated...
Biomimetic robot design for traversing inclined lava cave: from level surface to cave ground
Available online 10 August 2026
Exploring lava caves on the Moon or Mars is beneficial for the construction of research base for long-term settlement. Current wheeled rovers face difficulties in entering inclined lava cave due to...