Daria's Brief: Inspired by the movement of a gecko, the Soft Gecko is a soft robot that can walk and climb up walls and is powered using only air pressure. Many roboticists base robot designs on animals, but they tend to use hard materials, like motors and rigid plastics. Most animals, on the other hand, are invertebrates made of soft tissues. Soft robots are robots made of soft materials and powered by air and water, and they can easily be used to copy the movement of a "soft" animal. The hope is that the Soft Gecko will inspire roboticists in the future to make robotic animals using soft robotics. The robot itself is slightly larger than a gecko and can be mounted with a camera in order to explore places not accessible by humans or bulky hard robots. Also, since the robot runs on air, it does not require the complex and damage-prone hardware of hard robots. It could be especially helpful to the military or scientists operating in remote areas without access to power. 

The Soft Gecko is powered by increasing and decreasing the air pressure in flexible, 3D-printed legs that are heat-sealed inside plastic bags. Because of the accordion shape of the legs, they contract when the air pressure is decreased and expand when the pressure is increased again. Combined with silicone-molded suction cups that allow the robot to stick to the wall or floor and pull itself up, these legs allow the Soft Gecko to walk and climb. The legs were created using technology developed by Harvard, but they have never been used to power a robot. The user will control the robot by controlling an air compressor that powers the legs and suction cups instead of having to deal with complex electronics.