Scientists from CSAIL - MIT devised a scalable pipeline to computationally design and digitally fabricate soft pneumatic actuators, called “PneuAct.” PneuAct uses a machine knitting process — not dissimilar to your grandma's plastic needle knitting — but this machine operates autonomously. A human designer simply specifies the stitch and sensor design patterns in software to program how the actuator will move, and it can then be simulated before printing. The textile piece is fabricated by the k