“The idea of a loaded spring released by a latch is a staple in mechanical design, but the research team cleverly observed that engineers have yet to achieve the same performance out of a Latch-Mediated Spring Actuator that we find in nature,” Dean Culver, program manager at the lab, writes. “By more closely mimicking the geometry of a mantis shrimp's physiology, the team was able to exceed accelerations produced by limbs in other robotic devices by more than tenfold.”