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In article number 1806698, Guoying Gu, Qi Ge, and co‐workers develop a paradigm to design and manufacture fast‐response, stiffness‐tunable (FRST) soft actuators via hybrid multimaterial 3D printing. The robotic gripper with three FRST actuators demonstrates a high load capacity and shape adaptivity by lifting objects with arbitrary shapes and various weights spanning from less than 10 g to 1.5 kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laminar jamming (LJ) is a method to achieve variable stiffness in robotics that has attracted notable attention because of its simple working principle and potential high stiffness variation. This article reviews the lock/unlock mechanisms of LJ structures. The application of these mechanisms in robotics is discussed, including grippers, continuum robots, wearable robots, robot arms, and more. Furthermore, the performance and limitations of the mechanisms to vary the stiffness of LJ are qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. This performance analysis focuses mainly on the potential of LJ mechanisms to be applied in robot arms with variable stiffness and their potential to attenuate the impact between human beings and robot arms. The modeling of LJ through analytical and finite element methods is described, and their evolution towards design methodologies is discussed. To conclude, the directions and recommendations that should be followed in research on LJ are discussed. These include the improvement of existing lock/unlock mechanisms, the development of new lock/unlock mechanisms, and the development of more control algorithms for robot arms that incorporate LJ structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ocean environment has enormous uncertainty due to the influence of complex waves and undercurrents. The human beings are limited in their abilities to detect and utilize marine resources without powerful tools. Soft robots employ soft materials to simplify the complex mechanical structures in rigid robots and adapt their morphology to the environment, making them suitable for performing some challenging tasks in place of manual labor. Due to superior flexible and deformable bodies, underwater soft robots have played significant roles in numerous applications in recent decades. Meanwhile, various technical challenges still need to be tackled to ensure the reliability and practical performance of underwater soft robots in complicated ocean environment. Nowadays, some researchers have developed underwater soft robotic systems based on biomimetics and other disciplines, aiming at comprehensive exploration of ocean and appropriate utilization of unexploited resources. This review presents the recent advances of underwater soft robots in the aspects of intelligent soft materials, fabrication, actuation, locomotion patterns, power storage, sensing, control, and modeling; additionally, the existing challenges and perspectives are analyzed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rehabilitation robots have become one of the main technical instruments that Treat disorder patients in the biomedical engineering field. The robotic glove for the rehabilitation is basically made of specialized materials which can be designed to help the post-stroke patients. In this paper, a review of the different types of robotic glove for Rehabilitation have been discussed and summarized. This study reviews a different mechanical system of robotic gloves in previous years. The selected studies have been classified into four types according to the Mechanical Design: The first type is a tendon-driven robotic glove. The second type of robotic glove works with a soft actuator as a pneumatic which is operated by air pressure that passes through a plastic pipe, pressure valves, and air compressor. The third type is the exoskeleton robotic gloves this type consists of a wearable mechanical design that can used a finger-based sensor to measure grip strength or is used in interactive video applications. And the fourth type is the robotic glove with a liner actuator this type consists of a tape placed on the fingers and connected to linear actuators to open and close the fingers during the rehabilitation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the rapid advancements in the human–robot interface, soft robotics is getting attention in recent times. Conventional robots or robotic devices are not compatible with being used for internal application of the patient's body even outer applications are also inhibited due to lack of flexibility, heavyweight, and less motion creation. As physically challenged persons require different degree of comfortability and flexibility in their everyday work or therapy, textile-based soft robots have diverse advantages including safety, easiness to use, and proper deformability to assist them. Any robotic system for rehabilitation of the impaired patients is composed of three different units of sensing, actuation, and controlling. The accommodation of these three units in conventional robotic systems makes the device heavy, rigid, and mechanically less functional. Textile materials have a higher level of inherent and programmable properties regarding physical and chemical structure, weight, durability, and deformability. Leveraging textile structures, many efforts have already been done for the fabrication of soft robots. This review will discuss the present scenario of textile-based soft actuators that are made to assist physically challenged individuals. Materials, fabrication methods, outcomes of the devices, requirement specific applications of soft robotics for physically challenged individuals have been discussed. Finally, we suggest some future directions for textile-based soft robots addressing some challenges in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft robots adapt passively to complex environments due to their inherent compliance, allowing them to interact safely with fragile or irregular objects and traverse uneven terrain. The vast tunability and ubiquity of textiles has enabled new soft robotic capabilities, especially in the field of wearable robots, but existing textile processing techniques (e.g., cut‐and‐sew, thermal bonding) are limited in terms of rapid, additive, accessible, and waste‐free manufacturing. While 3D knitting has the potential to address these limitations, an incomplete understanding of the impact of structure and material on knit‐scale mechanical properties and macro‐scale device performance has precluded the widespread adoption of knitted robots. In this work, the roles of knit structure and yarn material properties on textile mechanics spanning three regimes–unfolding, geometric rearrangement, and yarn stretching–are elucidated and shown to be tailorable across unique knit architectures and yarn materials. Based on this understanding, 3D knit soft actuators for extension, contraction, and bending are constructed. Combining these actuation primitives enables the monolithic fabrication of entire soft grippers and robots in a single‐step additive manufacturing procedure suitable for a variety of applications. This approach represents a first step in seamlessly "printing" conformal, low‐cost, customizable textile‐based soft robots on‐demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft robotics enables various applications in certain environments where conventional rigid robotics cannot deliver the same performance due to their form factor and stiffness. Animals use their soft external organs to carry out activities in response to challenging natural environments efficiently. The objective of soft robots is to provide biologically inspired abilities and enable adaptable and flexible interactions with complex objects and surroundings. Recent advances in stimuli-responsive soft robot technology have heavily used polymer-based multifunctional materials. Soft robots with incredibly sophisticated multi-mechanical, electrical, or optical capabilities have demonstrated the ability to modify their shape intelligently in response to external stimuli, such as light, electricity, thermal gradient, and magnetic fields. This short review covers recent advances in scientific techniques for incorporating multifunctional polymeric materials into stimuli-responsive bioinspired soft robots and their applications. We also discuss how biological inspiration and environmental effects can provide a viable viewpoint for bioinspired design in the innovative field of soft robotics. Lastly, we highlight the future outlooks and prospects for soft, stimuli-responsive, bio-inspired robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the compatibility between the soft deformation and high stiffness through the development of a soft robotic gripper for a human-scale payload. Softness is important for robotic systems that physically interact with the environments, especially for adaptive grasping or manipulation of unknown objects. Pursuing only softness would not achieve them either, and creating a certain stiffness is also an essential function in many human-scale applications. Soft robotics is unique in that it employs soft materials for the structure, and will find a lot more applications if it gains the human-scale specifications of force or the equivalent stiffness. We discuss the compatibility of the soft deformation and high stiffness based on a numerical analysis, and then present the design of a soft robotic gripper actuated by high oil-pressure, reporting its experimental validations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, conventional model-based motion control has become more challenging owing to the continuously increasing complexity of areas in which robots must operate and navigate. A promising approach for solving this issue is by employing interaction-based robotics, which includes behavior-based robotics, morphological computations, and soft robotics that generate control and computation functions based on interactions between the robot body and environment. These control strategies, which incorporate the diverse dynamics of the environment to generate control and computation functions, may alleviate the limitations imposed by the finite physical and computational resources of conventional robots. However, current interaction-based robots can only perform a limited number of actions compared with conventional robots. To increase the diversity of behaviors generated from body–environment interactions, a robotic body design methodology that can generate appropriate behaviors depending on the various situations and environmental stimuli that arise from them is necessitated. Electronics-free robotics is reviewed herein as a paradigm for designing robots with control and computing functions in each part of the body. In electronics-free robotics, instead of using electrical sensors or computers, a control system is constructed based on only mechanical or chemical reactions. Robotic bodies fabricated using this approach do not require bulky electrical wiring or peripheral circuits and can perform control and computational functions by obtaining energy from a central source. Therefore, by distributing these electronics-free controllers throughout the body, we hope to design autonomous and highly decentralized robotic bodies than can generate various behaviors in response to environmental stimuli. This new paradigm of designing and controlling robot bodies can enable realization of completely electronics-free robots as well as expand the range of conventional electronics-based robot designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research field of soft robotics develops exponentially since it opens up many imaginations, such as human‐interactive robot, wearable robots, and transformable robots in unpredictable environments. Wet environments such as sea and in vivo represent dynamic and unstructured environments that adaptive soft robots can reach their potentials. Recent progresses in soft hybridized robotics performing tasks underwater herald a diversity of interactive soft robotics in wet environments. Here, the development of soft robots in wet environments is reviewed. The authors recapitulate biomimetic inspirations, recent advances in soft matter materials, representative fabrication techniques, system integration, and exemplary functions for underwater soft robots. The authors consider the key challenges the field faces in engineering material, software, and hardware that can bring highly intelligent soft robots into real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in the rapidly growing field of soft robotics highlight the potential for innovations in wearable soft robotics to meet challenges and opportunities affecting individuals, society, and the economy. Some of the most promising application areas include wearable haptic interfaces, assistive robotics, and biomedical devices. Several attributes of soft robotic systems make them well-suited for use in human-wearable applications. Such systems can be designed to accommodate the complex morphology and movements of the human body, can afford sufficient compliance to ensure safe operation in intimate proximity with humans, and can provide context-appropriate haptic feedback or assistance to their wearers. Many soft robotic systems have been designed to resemble garments or wearables that are already widely used today. Such systems could one day become seamlessly integrated into a myriad of human activities and environments. Here, we review emerging advances in wearable soft robotic technologies and systems, including numerous examples from prior research. We discuss important considerations for the design of such systems based on functional concerns, wearability, and ergonomics. We describe an array of design strategies that have been adopted in prior research. We review wearable soft robotics applications in diverse domains, survey sensing and actuation technologies, materials, and fabrication methods. We conclude by discussing frontiers, challenges, and future prospects for soft, wearable robotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widely used robot systems have a rigid base structure that limits the interaction with their environment. Due to the inflexible attachment points, conventional robotic structures can only manipulate objects with their special gripping system. It can be difficult for these systems to grasp objects with different shapes, handle complex surfaces or navigating in a heavily crowded environment. Many of the species observed in nature, like octopuses are able to perform complex sequences of movements using their soft-structured limbs, which are made up entirely of muscle and connective tissue. Researchers have been inspired to design and build robots based on these soft biological systems. Thanks to the soft structure and high degree of freedom, these soft robots can be used for tasks that would be extremely difficult to perform with traditional robot manipulators. This article discusses the capabilities and usability of soft robots, reviews the state of the art, and outlines the challenges in designing, modelling, manufacturing, and controlling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Origami structures held promise for their flexibility, simultaneous responsiveness, and adaptability, yet they are vulnerable due to the hygroscopic property when exposed to the humid environments. However, the patterning of hydrophobic material along the design enhances the controllability of paper for self-folding to robotics locomotion. The capillary action of sprayed water molecules is localized through the number or sizes of hydrophilic channels defined by the printed wax patterns resulting in large deformation to form various 3D geometries. The patterned paper performed folding actuation with water and unfolding behavior with evaporation without being mechanically manipulated by external forces or moments. The paper actuators further enable the sequential self-folding along the multiple hinges for the cube and diamond structures. Advances in soft robotics for practical applications, the utilization of different swelling/shrinking properties with water and kirigami-inspired programmable structures interact with the lightweight and non-planar objects. The anisotropic properties of paper in response to water spraying combined with folding/unfolding deformations permit the fold-to-pop-up robots for biomimetic locomotion on the plane or water. Two robots deform their body to move forward through bending-relaxation gait. [2020-0083] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft robotics is an emerging technology that has shown considerable promise in deep-sea marine biological applications. It is particularly useful in facilitating delicate interactions with fragile marine organisms. This study describes the shipboard design, 3D printing and integration of custom soft robotic manipulators for investigating and interacting with deep-sea organisms. Soft robotics manipulators were tested down to 2224m via a Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV) in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) and facilitated the study of a diverse suite of soft-bodied and fragile marine life. Instantaneous feedback from the ROV pilots and biologists allowed for rapid re-design, such as adding “fingernails”, and re-fabrication of soft manipulators at sea. These were then used to successfully grasp fragile deep-sea animals, such as goniasterids and holothurians, which have historically been difficult to collect undamaged via rigid mechanical arms and suction samplers. As scientific expeditions to remote parts of the world are costly and lengthy to plan, on-the-fly soft robot actuator printing offers a real-time solution to better understand and interact with delicate deep-sea environments, soft-bodied, brittle, and otherwise fragile organisms. This also offers a less invasive means of interacting with slow-growing deep marine organisms, some of which can be up to 18,000 years old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional robots are machines programmed to accomplish tasks, thanks to a complex ensemble of sensors connected to a computer "brain" which elaborate signals to drive specific actions. This complex network suffers from limitations—the need for a central computer, for instance, poses a limit to device miniaturization and requires a large amount of energy. A promising development, made possible by recent advances in material science, endeavors a new generation of soft robots that are multifunctional, compliant, and autonomous in ways that are similar to biological organisms. In particular, photoresponsive polymers are demonstrated to be valid candidates to substitute the computer‐based intelligence with an "intrinsic" material cleverness. First demonstrations of self‐sustained motions as oscillations or autonomous walking are described. In these cases, light also provides a solution to a second, very important, issue in microrobotics, which is the availability of a source of energy. Light actuation together with smart polymers can be combined into self‐controlled robots capable of simple decision‐making processes, for example with robotic grippers that are able to distinguish particles with different colors. In addition, the most recent examples about the integration of a form of robotic "intelligence" into a single material with a minimal level of consciousness are reported. Self‐regulating behavior of smart materials reveals an intriguing possibility to integrate robot intelligence, especially at the microscale that is inaccessible by miniaturizing robot multifunctionality. This review highlights developments and applications of responsive materials able to recognize a certain stimulus and convert it into a specific autonomous action as "deciding" to grab or not to grab micro objects depending on their optical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]