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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Turn an Ordinary Hair Clip Into One of the Fastest Soft Robot Fish Ever Built

What if a simple hair clip could inspire the next generation of fast, energy-efficient robots? It may sound surprising, but researchers have done exactly that. A new study has transformed the familiar snap hair clip into an innovative robotic mechanism that allows soft robots to move faster, use less energy, and perform more naturally.

The research, led by Zechen Xiong and his team, introduces a unique Hair Clip Mechanism (HCM)—a flexible structure that behaves much like the metal snap clips many people use every day. By using the same snap-through motion, the researchers created soft robotic fish that swim significantly faster than traditional designs, setting new performance records for this type of robot.

A Simple Hair Clip With Extraordinary Potential

Soft robots are made from flexible materials instead of rigid metal parts. Because they can bend, stretch, and safely interact with their surroundings, they are useful in areas such as underwater exploration, environmental monitoring, healthcare, and search-and-rescue missions.

However, soft robots also have a major weakness. Their flexible materials make them slower and less powerful than traditional robots. Engineers have been searching for ways to overcome this challenge without sacrificing flexibility.

The answer may come from an object almost everyone has seen—a snap hair clip.

The Hair Clip Mechanism is made from a thin, kinked ribbon whose two ends are connected together. When force is applied, the ribbon stores elastic energy. Once a critical point is reached, it suddenly snaps into another stable position, releasing the stored energy almost instantly. This rapid motion creates fast and powerful movement without requiring large amounts of energy.

Learning From Nature's Fastest Movements

The snapping behavior of the Hair Clip Mechanism is not unique to hair clips. Similar principles appear throughout nature.

Many plants and animals rely on stored elastic energy to produce incredibly fast movements. The Venus flytrap snaps shut in milliseconds to capture insects. Some plants explosively launch their seeds over long distances. Trap-jaw ants can close their jaws at astonishing speeds, while hummingbirds use rapid snap-through movements in their beaks.

Instead of depending entirely on muscle power, these natural systems slowly store energy and then release it all at once for explosive action.

The new robotic design applies the same strategy to improve robotic movement.

Understanding the Hair Clip Mechanism

Although hair clips have existed for decades, scientists had never fully explored their snapping behavior as robotic actuators.

The research team carefully studied how the Hair Clip Mechanism bends, stores energy, snaps between two stable positions, and returns to its original shape.

They created mathematical models to predict its behavior, verified those predictions using computer simulations, and confirmed everything through laboratory experiments.

This provides engineers with practical design rules for building future robots based on this simple but powerful mechanism.

Building Faster Robotic Fish

To demonstrate the technology, the researchers designed two different robotic fish inspired by the swimming style of real fish.

Instead of moving with smooth, continuous bending like conventional robotic fish, the Hair Clip Mechanism creates a wave of motion that rapidly travels through the robot's body after each snap.

This movement closely resembles carangiform swimming, a style used by many fast-swimming fish, where most of the body remains stable while the tail generates strong propulsion.

The result is greater speed and efficiency.

Robot Number One: Pneumatic Fish

The first prototype used air pressure to activate the Hair Clip Mechanism.

When compared with a traditional soft robotic fish using normal bending motion, the new design showed a dramatic improvement.

The pneumatic HCM fish reached a swimming speed of 1.40 body lengths per second, equivalent to 26.54 centimeters per second.

This was approximately twice as fast as the conventionally designed robot.

The researchers found that the snapping motion produced a more effective undulating wave through the body, generating stronger thrust with the same basic structure.

Robot Number Two: Untethered Swimming Machine

The second prototype represented an even bigger achievement.

Instead of relying on air tubes connected to external equipment, this version carried its own motor, allowing it to swim freely without being tethered.

During field tests in a natural lake, the untethered robotic fish achieved remarkable performance.

It reached a top swimming speed of 2.03 body lengths per second, or 42.6 centimeters per second, making it one of the fastest soft robotic fish ever developed.

The robot also generated a thrust of 245.66 milliNewtons, achieved an energy efficiency of 3.89%, recorded a Cost of Transport (CoT) of 5.14, and produced a thrust-to-power ratio of 79.46 milliNewtons per watt while swimming at 3 Hz.

Most impressively, its swimming speed was about 40% higher than the previous record-holding soft robotic fish.

Why Bistable Mechanisms Matter

The Hair Clip Mechanism belongs to a class of structures called bistable mechanisms.

Unlike ordinary flexible materials that always return smoothly to one position, bistable systems have two stable states. They can remain in either state without continuous energy input.

Energy is stored slowly while the mechanism is pushed toward a critical point. Once that point is reached, the mechanism snaps into its second stable position almost instantly.

This allows robots to generate rapid movement using relatively little power.

For soft robotics, this approach offers several important advantages:

  • Faster motion

  • Greater force output

  • Lower energy consumption

  • Simpler mechanical design

  • Improved adaptability

These benefits make bistable systems especially attractive for robots operating in difficult environments.

More Than Just Robotic Fish

Although the research focused on underwater robots, the Hair Clip Mechanism could be useful in many other fields.

Future applications may include:

  • Soft rescue robots that move through narrow spaces

  • Medical robots for minimally invasive surgery

  • Flexible industrial robots

  • Underwater inspection systems

  • Environmental monitoring robots

  • Wearable robotic devices

  • Deployable structures that unfold rapidly

Because the mechanism is simple, lightweight, and inexpensive, it could be adapted to many different robotic designs.

A New Direction for Soft Robotics

One of the most important contributions of this study is not just the impressive swimming performance but also the complete engineering framework the researchers developed.

They combined theoretical analysis, computer simulations, laboratory testing, and real-world demonstrations to show that the Hair Clip Mechanism can serve as a reliable building block for future robotic systems.

Until now, similar structures had been explored, but their snapping behavior had never been thoroughly analyzed or applied as practical robotic actuators.

This research fills that gap and opens the door to many new possibilities.

Looking Ahead

Sometimes the biggest technological breakthroughs come from the simplest ideas. By reimagining the humble snap hair clip, researchers have created a powerful new tool for soft robotics.

The Hair Clip Mechanism enables robots to store energy efficiently, release it rapidly, and move with speeds that were previously difficult to achieve using soft materials. The record-breaking robotic fish demonstrate that this elegant design can outperform many existing systems while remaining lightweight and energy efficient.

As scientists continue exploring bistable mechanisms, we may soon see a new generation of flexible robots that swim, crawl, jump, and interact with the world more like living creatures. What began as an everyday hair accessory could become a key innovation shaping the future of bio-inspired robotics.

Reference: Xiong, Z., Chen, L., Wilkinson, S.L. et al. Designing novel carangiform fish robots with undulating hair clip mechanisms. npj Robot 4, 7 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44182-025-00053-0

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