The growing interest in soft robots comes from the new possibilities offered by these systems to cope with problems that cannot be addressed by robots built from rigid bodies. Many innovative solutions have been developed in recent years to design soft components and systems. They all demonstrate how soft robotics development is closely dependent on advanced manufacturing processes. This review aims at giving an insight on the current state of the art in soft robotics manufacturing. It first puts in light the elementary components that can be used to develop soft actuators, whether they use fluids, shape memory alloys, electro-active polymers or stimuli-responsive materials. Other types of elementary components, such as soft smart structures or soft-rigid hybrid systems, are then presented. The second part of this review deals with the manufacturing methods used to build complete soft structures. It includes molding, with possibly reinforcements and inclusions, additive manufacturing, thin-film manufacturing, shape deposition manufacturing, and bonding. The paper conclusions sums up the pros and cons of the presented techniques, and open to developing topics such as design methods for soft robotics and sensing technologies.

Percutaneous procedures are among the developing minimally invasive techniques to treat cancerous diseases of the digestive system. They require a very accurate targeting of the organs, achieved by the combination of tactile sensing and medical imaging. In this paper, we study the forces involved during in vivo percutaneous procedures for the development of a force feedback needle insertion robotic system as well as the development of a realistic simulation device. The paper presents different conditions (manual and robotic insertions) and different organs (liver and kidney). Finally, we review some bio-mechanical models of the literature in the light of our measurements.

During percutaneous interventions, the haptic perception of transitions and ruptures in the tissues is fundamental. In the medical robotics context, these events should be conveyed to a remote telemanipulating practitioner or should be taken into account in a robotic control scheme. However, this problem is extremely complex given the nature and the variety of tissues involved in percutaneous procedures. In this article, in vivo percutaneous experiments associated with an online model estimation of the interaction between tissues and a surgical needle are presented for the first time. The estimation scheme is then used to provide a robust method to automatically detect the transitions that occur during needle insertion. Finally, the principle of a modified teleoperation scheme that would allow better haptic discrimination of ruptures is proposed and illustrated.