This paper presents Soft DAgger, an efficient imitation learning-based approach for training control solutions for soft robots. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, we implement it on a two-module soft robotic arm involved in t...
In the field of robotics, soft robots have been showing great potential in the areas of medical care, education, service, rescue, exploration, detection, and wearable devices due to their inherently high flexibility, good compliance, excellent adapta...
This paper presents the computational design, fabrication, and control of a novel 3-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) soft parallel robot. The design is inspired by a delta robot structure. It is engineered to overcome the limitations of traditional soft seri...
In recent years, jointless soft robots have demonstrated various curvilinear motions unlike conventional robotic systems requiring complex mechanical joints and electrical design principles. The materials employed to construct soft robots are mainly...
The soft robot is a new type of robot with strong adaptability, good pliability, and high flexibility. Today, it is widely used in the fields of bioengineering, disaster rescue, industrial production, medical services, exploration, and surveying. In...
Traditional underwater rigid robots have some shortcomings that limit their applications in the ocean. In contrast, because of their inherent flexibility, soft robots, which have gained popularity recently, offer greater adaptability, efficiency, and...
Time-dependent shape-transferable soft robots are important for various intelligent applications in flexible electronics and bionics. Four-dimensional (4D) shape changes can offer versatile functional advantages during operations to soft robots that...
This paper comprehensively reviews the latest advances in hydrogel-based continuum soft robots. Hydrogels exhibit exceptional flexibility and adaptability compared to traditional robots reliant on rigid structures, making them ideal as biomimetic rob...
This article explores the challenges of continuum and magnetic soft robotics for medical applications, extending from model development to an interdisciplinary perspective. First, we established a unified model framework based on algebra and geometry...
With the rise in new soft robotic applications, the control requirements increase. Therefore, precise control methods for soft robots are required. However, the dynamic control of soft robots, which is required for fast movements, is still an open to...
Soft robots present resilient and adaptable systems characterized by deformable bodies inspired by biological systems. In this paper, we comprehensively review existing design methods for soft robots. One unique feature of our review is that we first...
When we think of “soft” in terms of socially assistive robots (SARs), it is mainly in reference to the soft outer shells of these robots, ranging from robotic teddy bears to furry robot pets. However, soft robotics is a promising field th...
The use of textiles in soft robotics is gaining popularity because of the advantages textiles offer over other materials in terms of weight, conformability, and ease of manufacture. The purpose of this research is to examine the stitching process use...
Rehabilitation and nursing-care robots have become one of the prevalent methods for assistant treatment of motor disorder patients in the field of medical rehabilitation. Traditional rehabilitation robots are mostly made of rigid materials, which sig...
The field of robotics faces significant challenges in creating adaptable and flexible end-effectors. Soft robotics, specifically soft robotic end-effectors, offer an innovative solution. This paper focuses on designing fluid elastomeric actuators (FE...
In addition to high compliance to unstructured environments, soft robots can be further improved to gain the advantages of rigid robots by increasing stiffness. Indeed, realizing the adjustable stiffness of soft continuum robots can provide safer int...
In recent years, soft modular robots have become popular among researchers with the development of soft robotics. However, the absence of a visual 3D simulation platform for soft modular robots hold back the development of the field. The three-dimens...
Soft robots, which exhibit distinguishing features in terms of compliance, adaptability, and safety, have been expansively adopted in various niche applications. For soft robots, innovative actuators have been designed based on smart materials enabli...
Hybrid stimuli-responsive soft robots have been extensively developed by incorporating multi-functional materials, such as carbon-based nanoparticles, nanowires, low-dimensional materials, and liquid crystals. In addition to the general functions of...
Soft robots are a new class of systems being developed and studied by robotics scientists. These systems have a diverse range of applications including sub-sea manipulation and rehabilitative robotics. In their current state of development, the preva...
The aim of this article is to propose a bio-inspired morphological classification for soft robots based on an extended review process. The morphology of living beings that inspire soft robotics was analyzed; we found coincidences between animal kingd...
Soft continuum robots, with their flexible and deformable structures, excel in tasks requiring delicate manipulation and navigation through complex environments. Accurate shape sensing is vital to enhance their performance, safety, and adaptability....
This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of a hierarchical design framework in developing environment-specific behaviour for fluid-actuated soft robots. Our proposed framework employs multi-step optimisation and reduced-order modelling to reduce the...
There has been a notable focus on the adoption of jamming-based technologies, which involve increasing the friction between grains, layers, or fibers to achieve variable stiffness capability in soft robots. Additionally, magnetorheological elastomers...
Accurately controlling the dynamic response and suppression of undesirable dynamics such as overshoots and vibrations is a vital requirement for soft robots operating in industrial environments. Pneumatically actuated soft robots usually undergo larg...
In recent years, the emergence of low-dimensional carbon-based materials, such as carbon dots, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, together with the advances in materials science, have greatly enriched the variety of flexible and stretchable electronic d...
Soft robot motion performance has long been a core focus in scientific research. This study investigates the motion capabilities of soft robots constructed using poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) hydrogels, with key innovations in material design...
The increasing trend of studying the innate softness of robotic structures and amalgamating it with the benefits of the extensive developments in the field of embodied intelligence has led to the sprouting of a relatively new yet rewarding sphere of...
In recent years, more and more research has begun to focus on the flexible and lightweight design of wearable robots. During this process, many novel concepts and achievements have been continuously made and shown to the public, while new problems ha...
Soft robots possess great potential in environmental adaptations, while their environmental sensing abilities are critical. Conductive hydrogels have been suggested to possess sensing abilities. However, their application in soft robots is lacking. I...
The growing population of hand dysfunction patients necessitates advanced rehabilitation technologies. Current robotic solutions face limitations in motion compatibility and systematic design frameworks. This study develops a rigid–soft couplin...
The soft robots actuated by pressure, cables, thermal, electrosorption, combustion and smart materials are usually faced with the problems of poor portability, noise, weak load capacity, small deformation and high driving voltages. In this paper, a n...
With the growing application of soft robot technology in complex, dynamic environments, the limitations of traditional rigid robots have become increasingly prominent, urgently demanding novel soft actuation technologies. Dielectric elastomer actuato...
Soft continuum robots, inspired by the adaptability and agility of natural soft-bodied organisms like octopuses and elephant trunks, present a frontier in robotics research. However, exploiting their full potential necessitates precise modeling and c...
Reinforcement learning (RL) is explored for motor control of a novel pneumatic-driven soft robot modeled after continuum media with a varying density. This model complies with closed-form Lagrangian dynamics, which fulfills the fundamental structural...
Soft continuum robots and manipulators (SCRaMs) are elongated structures that can be used in many applications, such as exploration, inspection, and minimally invasive surgery. Multi-segment SCRaMs employ numerous actuators to perform their tasks. Th...
This study proposes a novel variable air pressure supply structure based on the electromagnetic effect. This structure can be implemented in various soft robots driven by air pressure, including pneumatic artificial muscles, pneumatic soft grippers,...
Kirigami-inspired geometries offer a lightweight, bioinspired strategy for friction enhancement and anchoring in soft robotics. This study presents a bioinspired kirigami structure designed to enhance the anchoring performance of soft robotic systems...
There are numerous developments taking place in the field of biorobotics, and one such recent breakthrough is the implementation of soft robots—a pathway to mimic nature’s organic parts for research purposes and in minimally invasive surg...
Currently, soft robots face challenges such as low motion efficiency, susceptibility to damage in traditional silicone materials, and difficulty in achieving reproducible manufacturing. To address these issues, we integrate flexible film materials wi...
Continuum robots play the role of end effectors in various surgical robots and endoscopic devices. While soft continuum robots (SCRs) have proven advantages such as safety and compliance, more research and development are required to enhance their ca...
Soft growing robots, which mimic the biological growth of plants, have demonstrated excellent performance in navigating tight and distant environments due to their flexibility and extendable lengths of several tens of meters. However, controlling the...
This paper presents a data-driven framework for optimizing energy-efficient locomotion in a bio-inspired soft inchworm robot. Leveraging a feedforward neural network, the proposed approach accurately models the nonlinear relationships between actuati...
In new-generation soft robots, the actuation performance can be increased by using multiple materials in the actuator designs. However, the lifetime of these actuators is often limited due to failure that occurs at the weak multi-material interfaces...
The path planning problem has gained more attention due to the gradual popularization of mobile robots. The utilization of reinforcement learning techniques facilitates the ability of mobile robots to successfully navigate through an environment cont...
Mobile millimeter and centimeter scale robots often use smart composite manufacturing (SCM) for the construction of body components and mechanisms. The fabrication of SCM mechanisms requires laser machining and laminating flexible, adhesive, and stru...
The recent commercial availability of stacked dielectric elastomer actuators (SDEAs) has unlocked new opportunities for their application as “artificial skeletal muscles” in rehabilitation robots and powered exoskeletons. Composed of mult...
Self-healing materials can prolong the lifetime of structures and products by enabling the repairing of damage. However, detecting the damage and the progress of the healing process remains an important issue. In this study, self-healing, piezoresist...
This paper focuses on the recent development of soft pneumatic actuators for soft robotics over the past few years, concentrating on the following four categories: control systems, material and construction, modeling, and sensors. This review work se...
In recent years, the field of soft robotics has gained much attention by virtue of its aptness to work in certain environments unsuitable for traditional rigid robotics. Along with the uprising field of soft robotics is the increased attention to sof...
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