The artificial hand moved smoothly, fingers curling and spreading to match the gestures of a human operator nearby. No cables connected it to any computer. No motors whirred inside. Instead, Danqing Liu and her team at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands built a soft, flexible device that learned movements the same way our muscles do — through practice.
Liu, a researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Chemistry, works with liquid crystal polymers, special materials made of long molecules that can change shape when exposed to light. In research published July 8 in the journal Science Advances, Liu and her team — Pengrong Lyu and Sam Weima — demonstrated that these polymers could be trained to mimic human movements. They created a device made from an azobenzene-functionalized liquid crystal polymer that stores information directly in its molecular structure. Light writes and erases that memory, while electrical signals trigger the actual movement.
"My goal is to add human feelings to the digital world," Liu said.
In a second paper published one day earlier in Matter & Light, Liu's team — Duygu Polat and Mert Astam — showed how different polymer components could coordinate their movements without any central control system. The key was flexible connections between the pieces. When one component moved, it passed that motion along to the next, creating smooth, unified action.
"This design principle could contribute to the development of autonomous soft robots and materials that can coordinate themselves," Liu explained.
This matters because current robots often move in stiff, mechanical ways that feel unnatural. Liu's soft materials move more like human muscles and joints, which could make interactions with technology feel more intuitive.
Liu already sees practical uses for this work. She is developing an interactive steering wheel that gives drivers tactile feedback — a gentle physical nudge — to help them navigate without looking away from the road. She recently received a grant and will travel to Japan to collaborate with researchers at Waseda University on automotive haptics, the study of how technology can communicate through touch.
Looking further ahead, Liu imagines people could one day feel physical sensations from virtual or augmented reality. "Imagine being able to physically feel, through a device, what you see in virtual or augmented reality," she said. "I believe that could help address certain mental health challenges."
The two published papers mark an important milestone for Liu's team. "We as a research team are on the right track," she said. The next step is turning this laboratory work into real-world tools that let digital systems and human bodies speak the same language.