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Daniel J. Preston, PhD
Dr. Daniel Preston is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Rice University. He is also director of the Preston Innovation Laboratory (PI Lab), which conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of energy, materials, and fluids.
Dr. Preston obtained his BS (2012) in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama and his MS (2014) and PhD (2017) in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following his graduate work, he trained as a postdoctoral fellow (2017-2019) at Harvard University in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.
He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the ASME Old Guard Early Career Award, and the Energy Polymer Group Certificate of Excellence. His lab is funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy, among other sources.
Te Faye Yap, PhD
Dr. Te Faye Yap earned her PhD in mechanical engineering from Rice University in 2024, advised by Dr. Daniel Preston, and is currently continuing her research at Rice as a postdoctoral fellow. She will start her own lab as a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in January 2025. She received her BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
In the spirit of developing innovative materials to advance the field of soft robotics, Dr. Yap was the lead author of the study that pioneered the concept of necrobotics, which challenged the conventional methods of using biotic materials—inanimate materials derived from living organisms, like wood or leather—that often require substantial post-processing, and instead repurposed the inanimate body of a spider as a ready-to-use actuator.
Dr. Yap’s other research has focused on studying temperature-dependent reaction kinetics for various phenomena, as well as interfacial phenomena and wearable soft devices.
“The notion of using unconventional materials for robots has been inspired by the field of soft robotics,” Dr. Preston says. “In contrast to typical robots, which primarily rely on rigid materials like metals and hard plastics, soft robotics aims to leverage compliant materials like rubber, textiles, and even biological substances. Embracing an innovative mindset in engineering can yield new solutions to old problems and initiate collaborations with experts from seemingly disparate fields.”
Soft robotics has yielded some of the objectively coolest creations in modern engineering. Harvard University’s 3D-printed Octobot has no electronics and is controlled with microfluidics. The Robotic Caterpillar at MIT undulates like an earthworm as it reacts to a magnetic field. Much of soft robotics has sought to learn from nature, and mimic it — but necrobotics goes a step further, and outright incorporates it.
“The idea of transforming an inanimate spider into a robotic component stemmed from our curiosity upon observing that spiders curl their legs inward when they die,” Dr. Yap says. “This observation spurred some initially lighthearted discussions, and ultimately led us to think about how we could repurpose this biotic material into a robotic component.”
Spiders are built in a curious way. They have flexor muscles, which allow them to pull their legs inward, but lack an antagonistic muscle pair that would allow them to extend their legs back out. To compensate, spiders use a form of hydraulic pressure: pumping hemolymph (which also serves as their blood) into their legs, and forcing them to straighten. When they die, there’s no more liquid being pumped into their legs, so their legs curl inwards.
The researchers at Rice looked down at a dead spider and asked themselves: so what if we pumped something into its legs ourselves?
With a syringe and some superglue, the team was able to both extend and retract the dead wolf spider’s legs. It was more than a party trick: the dead spider could pick up over 130 percent of its own bodyweight, and the body structure remained functional for 1,000 open-and-close cycles. Those attributes made the spider bot an excellent gripper, one which could help assemble microelectronics. It also got engineers thinking of what other applications were out there for necrobotics.
“Necrobotics could potentially streamline the fabrication of small-scale robots,” Dr. Yap says. “Because nature provides the source biotic material with a complex architecture that can be complicated or even impossible to replicate artificially, being able to directly apply it as a ready-to-use actuator bypasses the many steps required to fabricate traditional grippers, which can be challenging and expensive to manufacture, especially at smaller scales.”
The use of dead biological material does have drawbacks. First is the decomposition element, and can break down more quickly, and more frequently, than traditional materials (although researchers did experiment with a beeswax coating on the spider, which seemed to help preserve it). And organic inconsistencies from subject to subject (spider to spider) may yield less accurate results. But there are ways to mitigate these downsides, and the upsides are potentially groundbreaking.
“We hope that the field of necrobotics will serve as a platform for how we can respectfully and sustainably source and utilize biotic materials for robotics applications,” Dr. Preston says.
The researchers at Rice have said they’re considering using smaller spiders, or even whip scorpions. They’ve experimented with moving individual spider legs, one at a time, instead of all eight at once. And you’d be forgiven for wondering how seriously to take all of this—because it sounds like these researchers are just having fun and following their own curiosities.
But a sense of play and curiosity is often a prerequisite for novel thinking. Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon, noticed a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted while he was working on radar technology—an observation that eventually led to the invention of the microwave oven. Swiss engineer George de Mestral got inspired with the way burrs stuck to his dog’s fur, and, after studying those burrs under a microscope, went on to develop Velcro. The list goes on. The list now includes necrobotics.
“We encourage aspiring engineers to observe nature and let their curiosity guide them because inspiration can be found in the most unexpected places—in our case, a dead spider in the corner of our lab,” Dr. Preston says. “Think outside the box and explore unconventional ideas.”
Matt Zbrog is a writer and researcher from Southern California. Since 2018, he’s written extensively about a wide range of engineering disciplines, with a particular focus on the potential impacts of major technological breakthroughs. His work largely centers around conversations with engineering faculty at top universities, highlighting their research in areas such as nuclear power, artificial intelligence, soft robotics, and semiconductor design. He’s also worked with leaders and subject matter experts at the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).
By participating in a high school engineering program, students can build a solid foundation in STEM, form professional networks, and gain a clearer sense of their academic and career paths.
Engineers might be the only group of people where you can give them a problem—and they can consider it a gift. The engineering mind thrives on hunting for elegant solutions to complex tasks. That doesn’t mean you should give an engineering student a homework assignment for the holidays, but it does mean you can have some fun with the gift you eventually select.
Engineering internships are an increasingly important part of the transition from student to engineer. Internships provide an opportunity to put theoretical skills to work in hands-on environments. They also give engineering students valuable work experience, networking opportunities, and future career options.
Not long ago, self-driving cars were science fiction. Today, not so much. Influential companies like Tesla, Uber, Apple, and Google boast dynamic auto-drive programs, and many new startups are following their lead.
The 12th annual National Robotics Week (RoboWeek) takes place April 2-10, 2022. Established by Congress in 2010, this tech-focused week is about demonstrating the positive societal impacts of robotic technologies, and inspiring students of all ages to pursue careers related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
