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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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Flexible Shoulder in Quadruped Animals and Robots Guiding Science of Soft Robotics
Fukuhara, A., GUNJI, M., MASUDA, Y., Tadakuma, K., & Ishiguro, A. (2022) · Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics · doi:10.20965/jrm.2022.p0304 · Cited by 10
Hydraulically Actuated Soft Tubular Gripper
Davies, J., Phan, P. T., Huang, D., Hoang, T. T., Low, H., Thai, M. T., Nguyen, C. C., Nicotra, E., Lovell, N. H., & Do, T. N. (2022) · Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation/Proceedings · doi:10.1109/icra46639.2022.9811983 · Cited by 10
An Untethered Soft Robotic Gripper with Adjustable Grasping Modes and Force Feedback
Yang, Y., Zhu, H., Liu, J., Li, Y., Zhou, J., Ren, T., & Ren, Y. (2022) · IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO) · doi:10.1109/robio55434.2022.10011866 · Cited by 10
“Compared with traditional rigid robots, soft robots made of soft materials are more advantageous in terms of compliance, safe human-machine interaction and adaptability in unstructured environments [1-3].”
BackgroundLiu, B. B., Zhang, H., Wong, W., Chau, M., Cheung, L., Kajitani, T., & Leung, F. K. (2025) · Small · doi:10.1002/smll.202503359 · Cited by 9
Substrate and fluid film mechanics in rolling-sliding soft contact tribology
Cartwright, B., Xu, Y., & Stokes, J. R. (2024) · Tribology International · doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2024.109271 · Cited by 9
Arango, J. C., Pintro, C. J., Singh, A., & Claridge, S. A. (2024) · ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · doi:10.1021/acsami.3c16687 · Cited by 9
Gripping Force Modeling of a Variable Inclined Air Pillow Soft Pneumatic Actuator
Saleh, M. A., Soliman, M., Mousa, M. A., & Elsamanty, M. M. (2020) · Novel Intelligent and Leading Emerging Sciences Conference (NILES) · doi:10.1109/niles50944.2020.9257964 · Cited by 9
“Soft robotics as a new field offers many possibilities for researchers and scientists to develop adapted or human interaction robots that could be substituted for hard robots [1].”
Gait and locomotion analysis of a soft-hybrid multi-legged modular miniature robot
Mahkam, N., & Özcan, O. (2021) · Bioinspiration & Biomimetics · doi:10.1088/1748-3190/ac245e · Cited by 9
Álvarez-Martínez, J. U., Medina, O. M., Soto-Alcaraz, M. E., Castañeda-Priego, R., Gutiérrez-Juárez, G., & Castro‐Beltrán, R. (2022) · Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering · doi:10.1088/1361-6439/ac628d · Cited by 9
“Microfluidics, related to the field of miniaturization, has great potential for applications in areas from soft robotics [1] to bio-analytical analysis [2, 3].”
Novel Soft Haptic Biofeedback—Pilot Study on Postural Balance and Proprioception
Aydin, M., Mutlu, R., Singh, D., Sarıyıldız, E., Coman, R. L., Mayland, E. C., Shemmell, J. B. H., & Lee, W. C. C. (2022) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s22103779 · Cited by 9
Waterproof Design of Soft Multi-Directional Force Sensor for Underwater Robotic Applications
Cross, L. B., Subad, R. A. S. I., Saikot, M. M. H., & Park, K. (2022) · Applied Mechanics · doi:10.3390/applmech3030042 · Cited by 9
Liquid crystal elastomers for soft actuators
Wang, Z., & Yang, J. (2022) · Materials Lab · doi:10.54227/mlab.20220030 · Cited by 9
Fauvre, L., Fleury, É., Ganachaud, F., & Portinha, D. (2023) · ACS Applied Polymer Materials · doi:10.1021/acsapm.2c01746 · Cited by 9
A3D Printed Modular Soft Gripper for Conformal Grasping
Tawk, C., Mutlu, R., & Alıcı, G. (2020) · IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics · doi:10.1109/aim43001.2020.9158818 · Cited by 9
“Compared to conventional rigid and stiff robotic systems, soft robots are characterized by their adaptability, conformability, agility and durability [3].”
BackgroundTunable Properties of Nature-Inspired N,N′-Alkylated Riboflavin Semiconductors
Richtár, J., Ivanová, L., Whang, D. R., Yumusak, C., Wielend, D., Weiter, M., Scharber, M. C., Kovalenko, A., Sariçiftçi, N. S., & Krajčovič, J. (2020) · Molecules · doi:10.3390/molecules26010027 · Cited by 9
Hao, T., Xiao, H., Wang, J., Wang, X., Liu, S., & Liu, Q. (2024) · Tribology Letters · doi:10.1007/s11249-024-01848-2 · Cited by 8
“High-polymer elastomers are frequently utilized in soft robotic hands because they have properties including high elasticity, ductility, and tactility [24, 25].”
Biomorph Soft Actuators with Tardigrade‐Like Resilience
Salahuddin, B., Aziz, S., Zhang, X., Feng, D., & Zhu, Z. (2024) · Advanced Functional Materials · doi:10.1002/adfm.202404962 · Cited by 8
A Hollow Shell‐Lattice Soft Robot in Flexible Pipelines with Flowing Fluids
Guo, D., Wang, Y., & Kang, Z. (2025) · Advanced Science · doi:10.1002/advs.202414882 · Cited by 8
Sareh, P. (2025) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.241742 · Cited by 8
Robotic Plasma System for Rapid Activation of Mass-Produced Electrochemical Sensors
Di-Oliveira, M., Marra, M. C., da Rocha, R. G., Terra, T. R., Muñoz, R. A. A., & Richter, E. M. (2025) · Analytical Chemistry · doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.5c04556 · Cited by 8
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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