Throughout her career, roboticist Barbara Mazzolai has drawn inspiration from nature to design innovative robots. Now, she is focused on ensuring that the technology she creates also benefits the environment. Mazzolai began her career as a biologist, but a chance opportunity led her to switch to engineering, making her an early pioneer in the field of bioinspired robotics—robots designed to mimic natural systems. Over the years, she has developed robots inspired by creatures like octopuses and plants, and even seeds. “I’ve always been fascinated by living organisms and the extraordinary variety of solutions in nature, selected by the evolutionary process,” she explains. Mazzolai currently serves as the associate director for robotics at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa. She believes that engineering must consider its impact on the natural world, which has led her to advocate for a new field she calls “sustainability robotics.” In a recent article published in Nature Machine Intelligence, she and her collaborators outlined a vision for designing robots that improve the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology. “We need to reduce the footprint of our technology,” she says. “It’s really about thinking in a different way to open new possibilities for robotics and for society.” Mazzolai’s fascination with the natural world began in her childhood on Italy’s Tuscan coast, near the port city of Livorno. Her father was a public-health inspector and a professional mycologist, and the family often explored forests and studied fungi and plants. After considering a career in art, Mazzolai chose to study biology at the University of Pisa in 1987. She was particularly interested in marine biology but later joined the Italian National Research Council’s Institute of Biophysics, where she studied the movement of heavy metals like mercury through the environment. This work involved analyzing samples from water, soil, vegetables, and even humans to understand their impact on health. Balancing this research with her studies in environmental management, Mazzolai eventually became involved in designing environmental monitoring devices. In 1999, she joined a team led by renowned bioroboticist Paolo Dario at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, where she helped develop sensors and robots for monitoring air, water, and soil. Her early work in bioinspired robotics began with a soft robot modeled after an octopus, which demonstrated that robots could be flexible yet strong, mimicking the animal’s natural abilities. This project helped launch the concept of soft robotics. Over the years, Mazzolai has continued to explore how nature can inspire robotic design, including using plants as models. She became particularly interested in how plant roots efficiently explore underground environments, leading to the development of robots that could assist in environmental monitoring and agriculture. These robots mimic the way roots grow only at their tips, reducing energy use and enabling them to navigate complex terrain. To achieve this, Mazzolai and her team developed a miniaturized 3D printer that builds a snakelike body behind the robot’s tip, allowing it to move through soil with minimal resistance. The robot also includes sensors to detect obstacles and locate nutrients or water. Now, Mazzolai is focused on making robotics more sustainable. She envisions a future where robots are designed with their entire life cycle in mind, from creation to disposal. Her goal is to ensure that robots can be reused, recycled, or even biodegraded after their useful life, reducing environmental impact. She also emphasizes the importance of making robotics accessible to people around the world, regardless of their socioeconomic background, and ensuring that these technologies benefit both humans and the environment. “There are younger people who want to really work in this field because this is the future, their future,” she says. “They want to develop something that can help.”