To make robots more co-operative and have them perform tasks in close proximity to humans, they must be softer and safer. A new actuator generates movements similar to those of skeletal muscles using vacuum power to automate soft, rubber beams. Like real muscles, the actuators are soft, shock absorbing, and pose no danger to their environment or humans working collaboratively alongside them or the potential future robots equipped with them. This actuators called VAMPS (Vacuum Actuated Muscle-inspired Neumatic Structures), developed by Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.