Came across this awesome youtube video in my twitter feed:
It is a soft, silicon based robots which is completely different from the typical robot which is a rigid bulky thing. The size of these spiders is close to that of a penny which is pretty amazing for the degrees of motion that it has. I expect that based on the underlying principle it only works for small machines which need to perform light motion. Most likely, it s not functional for much larger robots.
The method is called Microfluidic Origami for Reconfigurable Pneumatic/Hydraulic devices which is appropriately abbreviated by MORPH. It is a proof of concept so it is not really functional yet. It can move its leggs but it cannot support its own weight. So it is almost more like a piece of art. But still pretty cool and promising technology.