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Soft Robotics
Open accessAbstract
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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“The combination of soft robotics with e-skin can additionally provide the user with a safe, light, and low complexity mode of actuation without the high cognitive strain associated with its rigid and heavy counterpart.[33–35]”
From Flexible Electronics and Devices as Human–Machine Interfaces for Medical Robotics (2022) · cites this paper as [34]
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Citations
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“This is beneficial in applications such as soft robotics where weight reduction and simplicity are some of the key characteristics and the use of the least number of materials ensures the best performance possible [89].”
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Soft robots built for extreme environments
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Bistable Valves for MR Fluid-Based Soft Robotic Actuation Systems
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“Existing sensing and control components are still mostly rigid and difficult to integrate effectively with soft robots, which inevitably increases the overall stiffness (Whitesides, 2018).”
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“Physics engines can be tuned to maximize their predictive accuracy, and auxiliary models can be built to estimate the transferability of virtual robots to such as those seen in electroactive polymers or shape memory alloys [130].”
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Bioinspired Soft Robotics: State of the Art, Challenges, and Future Directions
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“At its inception, the field of soft robotics primarily concerned itself with the development of hybrid soft devices which facilitated safer physical interaction with humans for medical orthoses [1] or within the context of industry [13, 14].”
BackgroundDesign and fabrication in the loop of soft pneumatic actuators using fused deposition modelling
Herianto, H., Irawan, W., Ritonga, S. A., & Prastowo, A. (2019) · Sensors and Actuators A Physical · doi:10.1016/j.sna.2019.111556 · Cited by 34
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Bi‐Shell Valve for Fast Actuation of Soft Pneumatic Actuators via Shell Snapping Interaction
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Logic operations with active topological defects
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A Two-Finger Soft Gripper Based on Bistable Mechanism
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“SOFT robotics has made significant progress over the past few decades [1], [2], [3], [4] with the development of elastic materials [5] and three-dimensional (3D) printing technology [6].”
BackgroundA fabric-based soft hand exoskeleton for assistance: the ExHand Exoskeleton
Maldonado-Mejía, J. C., Múnera, M., Díaz, C. A. R., Wurdemann, H. A., Moazen, M., Pontes, M. J., Segatto, M. E. V., Monteiro, M. E., & Cifuentes, C. A. (2023) · Frontiers in Neurorobotics · doi:10.3389/fnbot.2023.1091827 · Cited by 33
“Furthermore, soft robotics has inspired the development of actuator designs for hand exoskeletons that perform movements kinematically similar to natural human joint movements (Whitesides, 2018).”
BackgroundMethodStimuli-responsive polymer-based bioinspired soft robots
Panda, S., Hajra, S., Rajaitha, P. M., & Kim, H. J. (2023) · Micro and Nano Systems Letters · doi:10.1186/s40486-023-00167-w · Cited by 34
The mechanics and physics of twisted and coiled polymer actuators
Wang, Q., Ghrayeb, A., Kim, S., Cheng, L., & Tawfick, S. (2024) · International Journal of Mechanical Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2024.109440 · Cited by 33
“Another concept suggests that the actuation of TCPA may be linked to the stored elastic energy and released strain within the twisted helical structure [31, 32].”
BackgroundSoft Multi-Directional Force Sensor for Underwater Robotic Application
Subad, R. A. S. I., Saikot, M. M. H., & Park, K. (2022) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s22103850 · Cited by 33
Self-Oscillating Membranes: Chemomechanical Sheets Show Autonomous Periodic Shape Transformation
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Identification and Control of a Nonlinear Soft Actuator and Sensor System
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“SOFT robotics is a rapidly expanding field [1] with numerous applications to medical devices [2]–[4], wearable technology [2], [5], and human-robot collaboration [6], [7].”
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Untethered Soft Robots for Future Planetary Explorations?
Ng, C. S. X., & Lum, G. Z. (2021) · Advanced Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1002/aisy.202100106 · Cited by 32
Hardware Methods for Onboard Control of Fluidically Actuated Soft Robots
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“Many of the challenges facing the robotics community, such as adapting to complex and unstructured environments or performing delicate object manipulation tasks, can be addressed using soft robots (Whitesides, 2018).”
BackgroundThermoresponsive Hydrogels with Improved Actuation Function by Interconnected Microchannels
Spratte, T., Arndt, C., Wacker, I. U., Hauck, M., Adelung, R., Schröder, R. R., Schütt, F., & Selhuber‐Unkel, C. (2021) · Advanced Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1002/aisy.202100081 · Cited by 32
Tough and elastic hydrogel thermocells for heat energy utilization
Lyu, X., Lin, Z., Huang, C., Zhang, X., Yang, L., Luo, Z., Zhou, P., & Zou, Z. (2024) · Chemical Engineering Journal · doi:10.1016/j.cej.2024.152887 · Cited by 31
Ionic fuel-powered hydrogel actuators for soft robotics
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Reprogrammable 3D Liquid‐Crystalline Actuators with Precisely Controllable Stepwise Actuation
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Multijointed Pneumatic Soft Hand with Flexible Thenar
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Cellulose ionic conductor with tunable Seebeck coefficient for low-grade heat harvesting
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Soft Actuators Based on Spin‐Crossover Particles Embedded in Thermoplastic Polyurethane
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Muscle-inspired capacitive tactile sensors with superior sensitivity in an ultra-wide stress range
Shen, X., Nie, K., Zheng, L., Wang, Z., Wang, Z., Song, L., Jin, C., & Sun, Q. (2020) · Journal of Materials Chemistry C · doi:10.1039/d0tc00453g · Cited by 30
Flexible Bio-tensegrity Manipulator with Multi-degree of Freedom and Variable Structure
Wei, D., Gao, T., Mo, X., Xi, R., & Zhou, C. (2020) · Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering · doi:10.1186/s10033-019-0426-7 · Cited by 30
Soft Non-Volatile Memory for Non-Electronic Information Storage in Soft Robots
Nemitz, M. P., Abrahamsson, C., Wille, L., Stokes, A. A., Preston, D. J., & Whitesides, G. M. (2020) · IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) · doi:10.1109/robosoft48309.2020.9116013 · Cited by 30
Self-citationExploration of molecular machines in supramolecular soft robotic systems
Chau, A. K., & Leung, F. K. (2023) · Advances in Colloid and Interface Science · doi:10.1016/j.cis.2023.102892 · Cited by 30
Electrothermal Actuators with Ultrafast Response Speed and Large Deformation
Chen, G., Yang, Z., Wang, W., Bi, L., Chen, L., Peng, Y., & Ye, C. (2020) · Advanced Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1002/aisy.202000036 · Cited by 29
A Fully Soft and Passive Assistive Device to Lower the Metabolic Cost of Sit-to-Stand
Lee, H., Kim, S. H., & Park, H. (2020) · Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology · doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.00966 · Cited by 29
“These hard robots are well suited for applications that require high power outputs like assisting paraplegics in clinical settings (Whitesides, 2018).”
BackgroundDesign of a Carangiform Swimming Robot through a Multiphysics Simulation Environment
Costa, D., Palmieri, G., Palpacelli, M.-C., Scaradozzi, D., & Callegari, M. (2020) · Biomimetics · doi:10.3390/biomimetics5040046 · Cited by 29
Toward the Development of Large-Scale Inflatable Robotic Arms Using Hot Air Welding
Oh, N., & Rodrigue, H. (2022) · Soft Robotics · doi:10.1089/soro.2021.0134 · Cited by 29
Highly Transparent and Tough Filler Composite Elastomer Inspired by the Cornea
Watanabe, K., Miwa, E., Asai, F., Seki, T., Urayama, K., Nakatani, T., Fujinami, S., Hoshino, T., Takata, M., Liu, C., et al. (2020) · ACS Materials Letters · doi:10.1021/acsmaterialslett.9b00520 · Cited by 30
Fundamentals of burrowing in soft animals and robots
Dorgan, K. M., & Daltorio, K. A. (2023) · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · doi:10.3389/frobt.2023.1057876 · Cited by 28
“We emphasize soft-bodied burrowers as inspiration for the rapidly growing field of soft robotics (see reviews in (Lachi et al., 2016; Whitesides 2018; Mazzolai et al., 2022)), while drawing examples from a broader diversity of burrowers to generalize the underlying principles.”
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Microengineered Materials with Self‐Healing Features for Soft Robotics
Kumar, V., Ko, U. H., Zhou, Y., Hoque, J., Arya, G., & Varghese, S. (2021) · Advanced Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1002/aisy.202100005 · Cited by 28
Oscillating viscoelastic periodic contacts: A numerical approach
Putignano, C. (2021) · International Journal of Mechanical Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2021.106663 · Cited by 28
Design of Bistable Soft Deployable Structures via a Kirigami‐Inspired Planar Fabrication Approach
Mungekar, M., Ma, L., Yan, W., Kackar, V., Shokrzadeh, S., & Jawed, M. K. (2023) · Advanced Materials Technologies · doi:10.1002/admt.202300088 · Cited by 27
Recent Development of Jumping Motions Based on Soft Actuators
Li, J., Yu, K., Wang, G., Gu, W., Xia, Z., Zhou, X. Y., & Liu, Z. (2023) · Advanced Functional Materials · doi:10.1002/adfm.202300156 · Cited by 27
Wang, X., Zhu, Y., Liu, Z., Yuan, Y., & Qiu, L. (2021) · Advanced Electronic Materials · doi:10.1002/aelm.202100591 · Cited by 27
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A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation
Hoang, T. T., Sy, L. W., Bussu, M., Thai, M. T., Low, H., Phan, P. T., Davies, J., Nguyen, C. C., Lovell, N. H., & Do, T. N. (2021) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s21227638 · Cited by 31
Motorized, untethered soft robots via 3D printed auxetics
Kaarthik, P., Sanchez, F. L., Avtges, J., & Truby, R. L. (2022) · Soft Matter · doi:10.1039/d2sm00779g · Cited by 27
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Actuation for flexible and stretchable microdevices
Roshan, U., Mudugamuwa, A., Cha, H., Hettiarachchi, S., Zhang, J., & Nguyen, N. (2024) · Lab on a Chip · doi:10.1039/d3lc01086d · Cited by 27
Wear mode control of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) by load and composition
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Metadata
- Authors
- Whitesides, G. M.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- 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
- 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
- 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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