From plate to pincer

In recent years, robotics has taken a surprising step in a very unusual direction: using parts of dead animals to build robots. This new frontier is known as necrobotics, and one of the most recent examples involves langoustines and their crustacean shells. A group of engineers at the CREATE Lab of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland transformed the tail exoskeletons of langoustines, small crustaceans similar to lobsters, into biohybrid robots capable of moving and gripping objects. The idea may seem macabre, but it is actually very interesting from both an environmental and a technological point of view. Langoustine exoskeletons are made mainly of chitin, a material that is both highly resistant and flexible, already optimised by evolution to withstand mechanical stress and enable complex movements in crustaceans. These properties make them suitable for performing robotic functions without the need for metals or plastics that are difficult to recycle. In the Swiss laboratory, the shells were first cleaned and then integrated with elastic components and synthetic parts that act like tendons. By connecting the whole system to a motorised base, the engineers succeeded in creating joints that contract and relax, much like the muscles of a living organism. Using this system, they created a robotic pincer capable of lifting objects weighing up to about half a kilogram, while showing remarkable delicacy in handling fragile items, such as a ripe tomato, without crushing them. In another experiment, the same materials were turned into an aquatic robot fitted with “fins”, allowing the machine to move through water with a regular rhythm. This example shows that biological components are not only useful for static or gripping functions, but can also be adapted to more complex movements in different environments. Necrobotics is not entirely new: in 2022, a team at Rice University in the United States used the bodies of dead spiders, exploiting their unusual hydraulic physiology to extend and retract the legs, transforming them into small functional robotic grippers. This line of research is especially interesting for two reasons. The first is sustainability: materials such as crustacean exoskeletons are biodegradable and readily available, reducing dependence on limited resources and on the use of plastic. The second is natural efficiency: many biological structures, shaped by evolution over millions of years, offer solutions already optimised for strength, flexibility and lightness that engineers struggle to replicate with artificial materials. Naturally, necrobotics also raises ethical and practical questions about what counts as “living” or “robotic”, and about how animal parts should be used in technological projects. For the moment, however, these experiments show that the frontiers of robotics can include hybrid solutions that combine nature and engineering in surprising and potentially useful ways.