From food to robot: Development of edible structural components for robotics

Edible robots may sound highly futuristic; however, with growing consideration of sustainable development and the evolving societal demands for functional robots, they are expected to gain interest in the foreseeable future. As a novel concept, the development of edible robots presents many challenges and open questions, such as how to systematically design such devices, which food materials should be selected, and what processing strategies need to be employed. This thesis addresses these issues across its chapters, progressively exploring a rational design guideline for the design and fabrication of edible robots, with a focus on structural materials and components. The results demonstrate how conventional engineering materials can be replaced with food materials to fabricate structural components in edible robot applications, and how these components can be systematically integrated into functional robots. The outcomes of this thesis provide future researchers with a systematic and efficient strategy for developing diverse edible robots.