Soft Actuation: State of the Art and Outlook, Volume II- Research Advances

Dear Colleagues,

Adapting to rapidly changing global conditions increases humanity's dependence on advanced technologies. Climate cataclysms, environmental disasters, and epidemics have tested many technological domains. Breakthrough technologies, mature enough for implementation, rapidly find their way to the front line to solve critical issues.

Soft robotics possesses the potential to become a technological game-changer and help humanity overcome future global challenges. Indeed, the efforts to minimize humans’ role in dangerous, urgent tasks have significantly increased the demand for robots capable of actively assisting or substituting humans. However, there are still no intelligent adaptive robots capable of consistently collaborating with people beyond the strict execution of pre-programmed tasks in either emergencies or routine procedures.

Several technological limitations have hindered the development of such nature-like robots. One of the main gaps has been the lack of reliable soft actuators with characteristics comparable to those of biological muscles. These include high actuation stress and strain, a wide range of actuation frequencies, high energy density, and repeatable performance for billions of cycles. On the system level, such actuators should also be compatible with the sensing and computation components of the robot. The bar is high, and intensive research is being conducted around the globe to develop advanced soft actuators and realize the full potential of soft robotics.

Preparing the soft robotics field for future global challenges requires acknowledging the achievements in soft actuation, admitting its technological gaps, and detailing the domain's future development vectors. As most experimental research in various disciplines has been put on hold due to the pandemic, now may be the most suitable time for this effort.

Following the success of Volume I of this Special Issue, which included five review and perspective papers, we decided to broaden the scope and compile a second volume for the publication of all types of manuscripts (reviews, perspectives, and research papers).

This Special Issue of Actuators showcases and discusses new advances in various aspects of soft actuation, both the fundamentals and its applications. I invite you to submit reviews or original research articles for publication in "Soft Actuation: State of the Art and Outlook, Volume II- Research advances".

Dr. Aslan Miriyev
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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