Robotics—Soft Robotics

Abstract

Soft robotics is the science and engineering of the robots primarily made of soft materials, components and monolithic (or continuum) active structures such that the soft robots can safely interact with and adapt to their environment better than the robots made of hard components. Soft robotics will have a significant impact especially on medical applications such as prosthetic devices, wearable robots, assistive and rehabilitation devices, and applications involving safe interaction with humans and objects, manipulating and grasping fragile objects, crops and similar agricultural products. Soft materials with programmable mechanical, electrical and rheological properties, and conformable to additive manufacturing based on 3D printing are essential to realize soft robots. In this article, we present what soft robotics is and characteristics differentiating the field of soft robotics from the conventional hard robotics and outline the significance of bioinspiration, soft smart materials and additive manufacturing to establish soft robotic systems. Main features differentiating soft robotics from the hard robotics center around built-in actuation, sensing, motion transmission and conversion mechanism, embodied intelligence, morphological computation, and compliance (i.e., softness) matching and tuning. The features should ideally be integrated into the monolithic morphology of a soft robot which should be fabricated from soft and hard materials or from a strategic combination of them. We conclude with what is ahead of us for soft robotics in order to bring new momentum to the field of robotics.