Technologies and Applications of Soft Robotics: A Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13052/jgeu0975-1416.1128Keywords:
Soft robotics, soft actuators, soft sensors, soft robot applicationsAbstract
A soft robot is a type of continuum robot that is made of a soft material. Soft robots show infinite degrees of freedom that enable them to track complicated paths. The advantages of soft robotics include high safety, minimal maintenance cost, and robust adaptability to the unstructured environment. Therefore, they can be used for applications in various fields such as industrial, defense, medical, and exploration. This paper discusses about the various existing technologies used in development soft robots. The paper mainly focuses on the design, manufacturing, actuation, and sensing aspects of soft robotics. A review on these aspects of soft robotics is presented along with applications.
Downloads
References
Della Santina, C., Catalano, M. G., Bicchi, A., Ang, M., Khatib, O., and Siciliano, B. (2020). Soft robots. Encyclopedia of Robotics, 489.
Rus, D., and Tolley, M. T. (2015). Design, fabrication and control of soft robots. Nature, 521(7553), 467–475.
Shintake, J. (2022). Green Robotics: Toward Realization of Environmentally Friendly Soft Robots. Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, 34(2), 270–272.
Schmitt, F., Piccin, O., Barbé, L., and Bayle, B. (2018). Soft robots manufacturing: A review. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5, 84.
Chen, Feifei, and Michael Yu Wang. “Design optimization of soft robots: A review of the state of the art.” IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 27.4 (2020): 27–43.
Lee, Y., W. J. Song, and J-Y. Sun. “Hydrogel soft robotics.” Materials Today Physics 15 (2020): 100258.
Iida, Fumiya, and Cecilia Laschi. “Soft robotics: Challenges and perspectives.” Procedia Computer Science 7 (2011): 99-102.
Walker, James, et al. “Soft robotics: A review of recent developments of pneumatic soft actuators.” Actuators. Vol. 9. No. 1. MDPI, 2020.
Garrad, Martin, et al. “A soft matter computer for soft robots.” Science Robotics 4.33 (2019): eaaw6060.
Xiao, Yao-Yu, Zhi-Chao Jiang, and Yue Zhao. “Liquid Crystal Polymer-Based Soft Robots.” Advanced Intelligent Systems 2.12 (2020): 2000148.
Youssef, Samuel M., et al. “Underwater soft robotics: A review of bioinspiration in design, actuation, modeling, and control.” Micromachines 13.1 (2022): 110.
Paik, J. (2018). Soft robot design methodology for ‘push-button ‘manufacturing. Nature Reviews Materials, 3(6), 81–83.
Laschi, C., Mazzolai, B., and Cianchetti, M. (2016). Soft robotics: Technologies and systems pushing the boundaries of robot abilities. Science robotics, 1(1), eaah3690.
Nemiroski, A., Shevchenko, Y. Y., Stokes, A. A., Unal, B., Ainla, A., Albert, S., … and Whitesides, G. M. (2017). Arthrobots. Soft robotics, 4(3), 183–190.
Khanbareh, H., de Boom, K., Schelen, B., Scharff, R. B. N., Wang, C. C. L., van der Zwaag, S., and Groen, P. (2017). Large area and flexible micro-porous piezoelectric materials for soft robotic skin. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 263, 554–562.
Crowley, G. B., Zeng, X., and Su, H. J. (2022). A 3D printed soft robotic gripper with a variable stiffness enabled by a novel positive pressure layer jamming technology. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(2), 5477–5482.
Li, S., Stampfli, J. J., Xu, H. J., Malkin, E., Diaz, E. V., Rus, D., and Wood, R. J. (2019, May). A vacuum-driven origami “magic-ball” soft gripper. In 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp. 7401–7408). IEEE.
Truby, R. L., Wehner, M., Grosskopf, A. K., Vogt, D. M., Uzel, S. G., Wood, R. J., and Lewis, J. A. (2018). Soft somatosensitive actuators via embedded 3D printing. Advanced Materials, 30(15), 1706383.
Tse, Z. T. H., Chen, Y., Hovet, S., Ren, H., Cleary, K., Xu, S., …and Monfaredi, R. (2018). Soft robotics in medical applications. Journal of Medical Robotics Research, 3(03n04), 1841006.
Fras, J., Noh, Y., Macias, M., Wurdemann, H., and Althoefer, K. (2018, May). Bio-inspired octopus robot based on novel soft fluidic actuator. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp. 1583–1588). IEEE.
Shen, H., and Magazine, N. (2016). Beyond terminator: squishy” octobot” heralds new era of soft robotics. Nature.
Miron, G., and Plante, J. S. (2016). Design principles for improved fatigue life of high-strain pneumatic artificial muscles. Soft Robotics, 3(4), 177–185.
Y. Sugiyama and S. Hirai, “Crawling and jumping by a deformable robot,” Int. J. of Robotics Research, Vol. 25, No. 56, pp. 603–620, 2006.
Z. Zhang, X. Wang, S. Wang, D. Meng, and B. Liang, “Design and Modeling of a Parallel-Pipe-Crawling Pneumatic Soft Robot,” IEEE Access, Vol. 7, pp. 134301–134317, 2019.
Martinez, R. V., Glavan, A. C., Keplinger, C., Oyetibo, A. I., and Whitesides, G. M. (2014). Soft actuators and robots that are resistant to mechanical damage. Advanced Functional Materials, 24(20), 3003–3010.
Zhang, Y., Li, P., Quan, J., Li, L., Zhang, G., and Zhou, D. (2023). Progress, challenges, and prospects of soft robotics for space applications. Advanced Intelligent Systems, 5(3), 2200071.
Schmitt, F., Piccin, O., Barbé, L., and Bayle, B. (2018). Soft robots manufacturing: A review. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5, 84.
Hann, Sung Yun, et al. “4D printing soft robotics for biomedical applications.” Additive Manufacturing 36 (2020): 101567.
Joyee, E. B., and Pan, Y. (2019). Multi-material additive manufacturing of functional soft robot. Procedia Manufacturing, 34, 566–573.
Wallin, T. J., Pikul, J., and Shepherd, R. F. (2018). 3D printing of soft robotic systems. Nature Reviews Materials, 3(6), 84–100.
Gul, J. Z., Sajid, M., Rehman, M. M., Siddiqui, G. U., Shah, I., Kim, K. H., and Choi, K. H. (2018). 3D printing for soft robotics–a review. Science and technology of advanced materials, 19(1), 243–262.
Gariya, N., and Kumar, P. (2021). A review on soft materials utilized for the manufacturing of soft robots. Materials Today: Proceedings, 46, 11177–11181.
Truby, R. L., and Lewis, J. A. (2016). Printing soft matter in three dimensions. Nature, 540(7633), 371–378.
Wang, Jiangxin, Dace Gao, and Pooi See Lee. “Recent progress in artificial muscles for interactive soft robotics.” Advanced Materials 33.19 (2021): 2003088.
Pal, Aniket, et al. “Exploiting mechanical instabilities in soft robotics: Control, sensing, and actuation.” Advanced Materials 33.19 (2021): 2006939.
T. Wang, Y. Hao, X. Yang, and L. Wen, “Soft Robotics: Structure, Actuation, Sensing and Control,” J. of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 53, No. 13, pp. 1–13, 2017.
El-Atab, Nazek, et al. “Soft actuators for soft robotic applications: A review.” Advanced Intelligent Systems 2.10 (2020): 2000128.
Xiao, Youhua, et al. “Anisotropic electroactive elastomer for highly maneuverable soft robotics.” Nanoscale 12.14 (2020): 7514–7521.
Hines, L., Petersen, K., Lum, G. Z., and Sitti, M. (2017). Soft actuators for small-scale robotics. Advanced materials, 29(13), 1603483.
Hajiesmaili, E., and Clarke, D. R. (2019). Reconfigurable shape-morphing dielectric elastomers using spatially varying electric fields. Nature communications, 10(1), 1–7.
Khan, A. H., Shao, Z., Li, S., Wang, Q., and Guan, N. (2020). Which is the best PID variant for pneumatic soft robots an experimental study. IEEE/CAA journal of automaticasinica, 7(2), 451.
Yang, S., and Lu, N. (2013). Gauge factor and stretchability of silicon-on-polymer strain gauges. Sensors, 13(7), 8577–8594.
Wu, Shuang, et al. “Fast thermal actuators for soft robotics.” Soft Robotics 9.6 (2022): 1031–1039.
Farhan, Muhammad, et al. “Origami hand for soft robotics driven by thermally controlled polymeric fiber actuators.” MRS Communications 11 (2021): 476–482.
Huang, Xiaonan, et al. “Highly dynamic shape memory alloy actuator for fast moving soft robots.” Advanced Materials Technologies 4.4 (2019): 1800540.
Xia, Y., He, Y., Zhang, F., Liu, Y., and Leng, J. (2021). A review of shape memory polymers and composites: mechanisms, materials, and applications. Advanced materials, 33(6), 2000713.
Cianchetti, M. (2013). Fundamentals on the use of shape memory alloys in soft robotics. Interdisciplinary mechatronics, 227–254.
Zhang, X., Tan, B. H., and Li, Z. (2018). Biodegradable polyester shape memory polymers: Recent advances in design, material properties and applications. Materials Science and Engineering: C, 92, 1061–1074.
Gariya, N., and Kumar, P. (2022). A comparison of plane, slow pneunet, and fast pneunet designs of soft pneumatic actuators based on bending behavior. Materials Today: Proceedings, 65, 3799–3805.
T. Wang, Y. Hao, X. Yang, and L. Wen, “Soft Robotics: Structure, Actuation, Sensing and Control,” J. of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 53, No. 13, pp. 1–13, 2017.
Zaidi, Shadab, et al. “Actuation technologies for soft robot grippers and manipulators: A review.” Current Robotics Reports 2.3 (2021): 355–369.
Xavier, Matheus S., Andrew J. Fleming, and Yuen K. Yong. “Design and control of pneumatic systems for soft robotics: A simulation approach.” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 6.3 (2021): 5800–5807.
Diteesawat, Richard Suphapol, et al. “Electro-pneumatic pumps for soft robotics.” Science robotics 6.51 (2021): eabc3721.
Pal, Aniket, et al. “Exploiting mechanical instabilities in soft robotics: Control, sensing, and actuation.” Advanced Materials 33.19 (2021): 2006939.
Pang, Yaokun, et al. “Skin-inspired textile-based tactile sensors enable multifunctional sensing of wearables and soft robots.” Nano Energy 96 (2022): 107137.
Shih, Benjamin, et al. “Electronic skins and machine learning for intelligent soft robots.” Science Robotics 5.41 (2020): eaaz9239.
Chin, Keene, Tess Hellebrekers, and Carmel Majidi. “Machine learning for soft robotic sensing and control.” Advanced Intelligent Systems 2.6 (2020): 1900171.
Sachyani Keneth, E., Kamyshny, A., Totaro, M., Beccai, L., and Magdassi, S. (2021). 3D printing materials for soft robotics. Advanced Materials, 33(19), 2003387.
Koh, S. J. A., Zhao, X., and Suo, Z. (2009). Maximal energy that can be converted by a dielectric elastomer generator. Applied Physics Letters, 94(26), 262902.
Ren, L., Li, B., Wei, G., Wang, K., Song, Z., Wei, Y., … and Liu, Q. (2021). Biology and bioinspiration of soft robotics: Actuation, sensing, and system integration. Iscience, 24(9), 103075.
Vogt, D. M., Park, Y. L., and Wood, R. J. (2013). Design and characterization of a soft multi-axis force sensor using embedded micro fluidic channels. IEEE sensors Journal, 13(10), 4056–4064.
Majidi, C., Kramer, R., and Wood, R. J. (2011). A non-differential elastomer curvature sensor for softer-than-skin electronics. Smart materials and structures, 20(10), 105017.
Navarro, Stefan Escaida, et al. “A model-based sensor fusion approach for force and shape estimation in soft robotics.” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 5.4 (2020): 5621–5628.
Cianchetti, M., Ranzani, T., Gerboni, G., Nanayakkara, T., Althoefer, K., Dasgupta, P., and Menciassi, A. (2014). Soft robotics technologies to address shortcomings in today’s minimally invasive surgery: the STIFF-FLOP approach. Soft robotics, 1(2), 122–131.
Runciman, Mark, Ara Darzi, and George P. Mylonas. “Soft robotics in minimally invasive surgery.” Soft robotics 6.4 (2019): 423–443.
Martinez, Ramses V. “Wearables, E-textiles, and Soft Robotics for Personalized Medicine.” Springer Handbook of Automation. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023. 1265–1287.
Garcia, Lourdes, et al. “The role of soft robotic micromachines in the future of medical devices and personalized medicine.” Micromachines 13.1 (2021): 28.
Ding, Y., Kim, M., Kuindersma, S., and Walsh, C. J. (2018). Human-in-the-loop optimization of hip assistance with a soft exosuit during walking. Science robotics, 3(15), eaar5438.
Bardi, Elena, et al. “Upper limb soft robotic wearable devices: a systematic review.” Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 19.1 (2022): 1–17.
Awad, Louis N., et al. “Walking faster and farther with a soft robotic exosuit: Implications for post-stroke gait assistance and rehabilitation.” IEEE open journal of engineering in medicine and biology 1 (2020): 108–115.
Kragic, D., Gustafson, J., Karaoguz, H., Jensfelt, P., and Krug, R. (2018, July). Interactive, Collaborative Robots: Challenges and Opportunities. In IJCAI (pp. 18–25).
Firth, Charlotte, et al. “Anthropomorphic soft robotic end-effector for use with collaborative robots in the construction industry.” Automation in Construction 138 (2022): 104218.
Mousa, M. A., Soliman, M., Saleh, M. A., and Radwan, A. G. (2020). Biohybrid soft robots, e-skin, and bioimpedance potential to build up their applications: a review. IEEE Access, 8, 184524–184539.
Galiana, H. L., Saunders, B. E., Lee, G., Lytton, W. W., Santello, M., and Rothrauff, B. B. (2018). Advances in Biomimetic Robotics. Advances in Biomimetic Robotics, 325.
Bira, Nicholas, Yiği Mengüç, and Joseph R. Davidson. “3D-printed electroactive hydraulic valves for use in soft robotic applications.” 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE, 2020.
Kumar, V., Ko, U. H., Zhou, Y., Hoque, J., Arya, G., and Varghese, S. (2021). Microengineered Materials with Self-Healing Features for Soft Robotics. Advanced Intelligent Systems, 3(7), 2100005.
Kim, H., Choi, J., Kim, K. K., Won, P., Hong, S., and Ko, S. H. (2021). Biomimetic chameleon soft robot with artificial crypsis and disruptive coloration skin. Nature communications, 12(1), 1–11.
Lipson, Hod. “Challenges and opportunities for design, simulation, and fabrication of soft robots.” Soft Robotics 1, no. 1 (2014): 21–27.
Li, P., Wang, Y., Gupta, U., Liu, J., Zhang, L., Du, D., …and Zhu, J. (2019). Transparent soft robots for effective camouflage. Advanced Functional Materials, 29(37), 1901908.
Mirvakili, S. M., and Hunter, I. W. (2018). Artificial muscles: Mechanisms, applications, and challenges. Advanced Materials, 30(6), 1704407.
Wang, Jiangxin, Dace Gao, and Pooi See Lee. “Recent progress in artificial muscles for interactive soft robotics.” Advanced Materials 33.19 (2021): 2003088.
Minaian, Nazanin, Zakai J. Olsen, and Kwang J. Kim. “Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite (IPMC) artificial muscles in underwater environments: review of actuation, sensing, controls, and applications to soft robotics.” Bioinspired Sensing, Actuation, and Control in Underwater Soft Robotic Systems (2021): 117–139.
Zhu, Mengjia, et al. “Fluidic fabric muscle sheets for wearable and soft robotics.” Soft robotics 7.2 (2020): 179–197.
Liu, F., Deswal, S., Christou, A., ShojaeiBaghini, M., Chirila, R., Shakthivel, D. and Dahiya, R. (2022). Printed synaptic transistor–based electronic skin for robots to feel and learn. Science Robotics, 7(67), eabl7286.
Kang, J., Tok, J. B. H., and Bao, Z. (2019). Self-healing soft electronics. Nature Electronics, 2(4), 144–150.
Ying, Binbin, and Xinyu Liu. “Skin-like hydrogel devices for wearable sensing, soft robotics and beyond.” Iscience 24.11 (2021).
Zou, Z., Zhu, C., Li, Y., Lei, X., Zhang, W., and Xiao, J. (2018). Rehealable, fully recyclable, and malleable electronic skin enabled by dynamic covalent thermoset nanocomposite. Science advances, 4(2), eaaq0508.
