Soft Robotics:Structure, Actuation, Sensing and Control

Soft robots primarily consist of soft materials which can generate continuous deformation. Soft robots are considered to be safer, more adaptable and compliant than the rigid robots. These advantages lead them to have potential applications in the human-robot interaction, grasping complex and fragile objects, and navigate through narrow space for operation tasks. In the review paper, the soft robots have been divided into three categories: the cable-driven and traditional pneumatic soft robots, the hyperelastic material soft robots, and the smart material soft robots. While from the scientific perspective, the principal challenges of the soft robotics are summarized from the following three aspects: the structure and locomotion, the actuation and fabrication, as well as the sensing and control. The potential applications of the soft robots in areas including manipulation, medical and wearable devices were also reviewed. In the end, the variable stiffness, the integration of actuation sensing and control of soft robots are proposed as the promising potential research directions.