Soft Robotics

Abstract

This description of "soft robotics" is not intended to be a conventional review, in the sense of a comprehensive technical summary of a developing field. Rather, its objective is to describe soft robotics as a new field-one that offers opportunities to chemists and materials scientists who like to make "things" and to work with macroscopic objects that move and exert force. It will give one (personal) view of what soft actuators and robots are, and how this class of soft devices fits into the more highly developed field of conventional "hard" robotics. It will also suggest how and why soft robotics is more than simply a minor technical "tweak" on hard robotics and propose a unique role for chemistry, and materials science, in this field. Soft robotics is, at its core, intellectually and technologically different from hard robotics, both because it has different objectives and uses and because it relies on the properties of materials to assume many of the roles played by sensors, actuators, and controllers in hard robotics.

An Easy‐to‐Implement Toolkit to Create Versatile and High‐Performance HASEL Actuators for Untethered Soft Robots

“…[1][2][3] Soft robots offer an intrinsic adaptability and dexterity that is well-suited for safe operation near humans, opening applications in wearable, surgical and collaborative robotics. [1][2][3] Soft robots offer an intrinsic adaptability and dexterity that is well-suited for safe operation near humans, opening applications in wearable, surgical and collaborative robotics.…”

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those found in biological systems. [2,[4][5][6][7] Moreover, these lightweight and versatile machines can find utility in aerospace and marine engineering, industrial processing and automation, and active camouflaging. [2,[4][5][6][7] Moreover, these lightweight and versatile machines can find utility in aerospace and marine engineering, industrial processing and automation, and active camouflaging.

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“…[2,[4][5][6][7] Moreover, these lightweight and versatile machines can find utility in aerospace and marine engineering, industrial processing and automation, and active camouflaging. These devices offer diverse modes of actuation, [2,[13][14][15][16] but typically require a tethered connection to sources of pressurized fluid, which limits speed, efficiency, and portability. Two widespread types of soft actuators are soft fluidic actuators and dielectric elastomer actuators.…”

Kirigami‐Based Light‐Induced Shape‐Morphing and Locomotion

“…Being soft, they are expected to offer safe contact with human body or with fragile objects during manipulation . Their flexibility, in turn, brings about additional degrees of freedom in robotic movements, leading to adaptation to hurdles encountered in various environments . In the past decades, stimuli‐responsive soft material systems have attained an increasing amount of interest.…”

A Light‐Powered Ultralight Tensegrity Robot with High Deformability and Load Capacity

“…[1] Recently, soft-bodied robots with high dexterity and deformability have been extensively explored, such as pneumatic soft robots, [2][3][4] wearable soft robotic rehabilitation devices, [5] and reaction-powered octopus-shaped soft robot, [6] biomimetic photoinduced grippers, [7,8] etc. In particular, with the rigid components, most hard robots are not friendly in close contact with people or fragile objects.…”