Cited by 850Soft Robotics and ApplicationsAdvanced Materials and MechanicsRobotic Locomotion and Control

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Soft Robotics

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Whitesides, George M.·2018·Angewandte Chemie International Edition

DOI 10.1002/anie.201800907

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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.

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Authors: Whitesides, G. M.
Affiliations: Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author: Whitesides, George M.
ORCID: Whitesides, George M.
Venue: Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2018-03-08
Volume: 57
Issue: 16
Pages: 4258-4273
ISSN: 1433-7851 (ISSN-L)
1521-3773
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201800907
OpenAlex: W4211124276
Semantic Scholar: 4899ed6fef8ac75874a202e3458e4a2c1151f926
Cited by: 850
References: 98
Citations by year: 2026: 77 · 2025: 127 · 2024: 121 · 2023: 140 · 2022: 113 · 2021: 113 · 2020: 88 · 2019: 57 · 2018: 14
FWCI: 5.54
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
www.osti.gov
Licence: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations: Angewandte Chemie International Edition (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
Funders: National Science Foundation (1420570)
U.S. Department of Energy (# ER45852, DESC0000989)
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University (DMR- 1420570, 1420570)
Hansjörg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University
Division of Materials Research (DMR 14–20570, 1420570)
Topics: Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Soft Robotics and Applications
Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Advanced Materials and Mechanics
Physical Sciences › Engineering › Control and Systems Engineering › Robotic Locomotion and Control
Keywords: soft robotics, soft actuators

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