“The CSAIL team has taken multi-material printing to the next level by printing not just a combination of different polymers or a mixture of metals, but essentially a self-contained working hydraulic system,” Hod Lipson, Columbia University engineering professor and co-author of Fabricated: The New World of 3-D Printing, told CSAIL. “It’s an important step towards the next big phase of 3D printing — moving from printing passive parts to printing active integrated systems.”

“Our approach, which we call ‘printable hydraulics,’ is a step toward the rapid fabrication of functional machines,” Daniela Rus, one of the research paper’s co-authors, told CSAIL. “All you have to do is stick in a battery and motor, and you have a robot that can practically walk right out of the printer.”