Creating sustainable infrastructure with continuum robots

Robots that bend, twist and adapt through continuous deformation could be used to inspect and maintain the infrastructure of modern society. But challenges related to force application, shape estimation, robustness and contact-aware control will need to be addressed before they can have a practical impact. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles $119.00 per year only $9.92 per issue Buy this article - Purchase on SpringerLink - Instant access to the full article PDF. USD 39.95 Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout References Burgner-Kahrs, J., Rucker, D. C. & Choset, H. IEEE Trans. Robot. 31, 1261–1280 (2015). Billard, A. et al. Nat. Mach. Intell. 7, 818–824 (2025). Belke, C. H. et al. Nat. Mach. Intell. 5, 669–675 (2023). Fan, Y., Yi, B. & Liu, D. Robot. Comput. Integr. Manuf. 90, 102811 (2024). Armanini, C., Boyer, F., Mathew, A. T., Duriez, C. & Renda, F. IEEE Trans. Robot. 39, 1728–1748 (2023). Hu, D. et al. Nat. Mach. Intell. 5, 261–272 (2023). Lilge, S., Barfoot, T. & Burgner-Kahrs, J. IEEE Trans. Robot. 41, 905–925 (2025). Della Santina, C., Duriez, C. & Rus, D. IEEE Control Syst. Mag. 43, 30–65 (2023). Mengaldo, G. et al. Nat. Rev. Phys. 4, 595–610 (2022). Wang, Z., Freris, N. M. & Wei, X. Device 3, 100646 (2025). Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Ethics declarations Competing interests The author declares no competing interests. Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article Burgner-Kahrs, J. Creating sustainable infrastructure with continuum robots. Nat Electron (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-026-01663-8 Published: Version of record: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-026-01663-8