Soft robots keep getting more advanced all the time. With more sophisticated artificial muscles, they can become safer and stronger. Researchers at the Wyss Institute, Harvard SEAS, and MIT CSAIL have developed origami-inspired muscles capable of lifting 1000x their own weight.
These muscles are made of a compressible skeleton and air or fluid in a flexible skin. They rely on pressure differences to perform. According to the researchers, multi-directional motions can be programmed into materials.