Advanced materials for soft robotics

Soft robotics, a novel member of the robotic family, may apply a rich variety of flexible, advanced materials to generate movements and sense the motion. This new robotic technology delivers a variety of vital applications that can interact safely with human beings and function effectively in complex natural environments, including assistive medical and rehabilitation devices, search and rescue, underwater exploration, space manipulation, industrial operation, etc. Our understanding of the soft robotics is still in its infancy, the development of advanced materials that can be applied to soft robotics remain a key challenge. This chapter "Advanced materials for soft robotics" aims to meet the urgent requirements for research on advanced materials such as shape memory alloy, stretchable elastomeric sensor and Ionic Polymer-Metal composite that have very recently been used for soft robotics. Theoretical modeling, design, fabrication and experimental characterization included in this chapter could contribute to training of graduate students, robotic engineers and research scientists for understanding fundamental principles of advanced materials and how to apply advanced materials to robotics using a multidisciplinary science based approach.