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Related papers: A Review of Soft Robots

200 papers

Soft growing robots, commonly referred to as vine robots, have demonstrated remarkable ability to interact safely and robustly with unstructured and dynamic environments. It is therefore natural to exploit contact with the environment for…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-02-10 Yitian Gao , Lucas Chen , Priyanka Bhovad , Sicheng Wang , Zachary Kingston , Laura H. Blumenschein

Despite a slow neuromuscular system, humans easily outperform modern robot technology, especially in physical contact tasks. How is this possible? Biological evidence indicates that motor control of biological systems is achieved by a…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-05-19 Moses C. Nah , Johannes Lachner , Neville Hogan

Soft robotic systems present a variety of new opportunities for solving complex problems. The use of soft robotic grippers, for example, can simplify the complexity in tasks such as the of grasping irregular and delicate objects. Adoption…

Robotics · Computer Science 2017-02-03 Ross M. McKenzie , Thomas W. Barraclough , Adam A. Stokes

Modular robotics research has long been preoccupied with perfecting the modules themselves -- their actuation methods, connectors, controls, communication, and fabrication. This inward focus results, in part, from the complexity of the task…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-08-05 Philippe Martin Wyder , Haorui Li , Andrew Bae , Henry Zhao , Mark Yim

A wide range of microorganisms, e.g. bacteria, propel themselves by rotation of soft helical tails, also known as flagella. Due to the small size of these organisms, viscous forces overwhelm inertial effects and the flow is at low Reynolds…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-03-11 Yayun Du , Andrew Miller , Mohammad Khalid Jawed

Magnetic microrobots can be navigated by an external magnetic field to autonomously move within living organisms with complex and unstructured environments. Potential applications include drug delivery, diagnostics, and therapeutic…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-03-22 Yongyi Jia , Shu Miao , Junjian Zhou , Niandong Jiao , Lianqing Liu , Xiang Li

Soft robotics has emerged as a promising technology that holds great potential for various application areas. This is due to soft materials unique properties, including flexibility, safety, and shock absorption, among others. Despite many…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-08-12 Andrija Milojevic , Kyrre Glette

Bioinspired snake robotics has been a highly active area of research over the years and resulted in many prototypes. Much of these prototypes takes the form of serially jointed-rigid bodies. The emergence of soft robotics contributed to a…

Robotics · Computer Science 2019-08-15 Isuru S. Godage

Legged locomotion is a highly promising but under-researched subfield within the field of soft robotics. The compliant limbs of soft-limbed robots offer numerous benefits, including the ability to regulate impacts, tolerate falls, and…

Swarm Robotics is an emerging field of adapting the phenomenon of natural swarms to robotics. It is a study of robots that are aimed to mimic natural swarms, like ants and birds, to form a system that is scalable, flexible, and robust.…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-01-05 Ahmad Reza Cheraghi , Sahdia Shahzad , Kalman Graffi

Fine robotic assembly, in which the parts to be assembled are small and fragile and lie in an unstructured environment, is still out of reach of today's industrial robots. The main difficulties arise in the precise localization of the parts…

Robotics · Computer Science 2015-09-17 Francisco Suárez-Ruiz , Quang-Cuong Pham

Swarm robotic systems are systems in which multiple robots having simple functionality perform tasks through their cooperation, and are advantageous in that they can exhibit non-trivial macroscopic functions such as adaptability, fault…

Robotics · Computer Science 2018-08-14 Takeshi Kano , Naoki matsui , Eiichi Naito , Takenobu Aoshima , Akio Ishiguro

This paper introduces a new type of soft continuum robot, called SCoReS, which is capable of self-controlling continuously its curvature at the segment level; in contrast to previous designs which either require external forces or machine…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-01-22 Xinran Wang , Qiujie Lu , Dongmyoung Lee , Zhongxue Gan , Nicolas Rojas

We present an open-source untethered quadrupedal soft robot platform for dynamic locomotion (e.g., high-speed running and backflipping). The robot is mostly soft (80 vol.%) while driven by four geared servo motors. The robot's soft body and…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-03-17 Boxi Xia , Jiaming Fu , Hongbo Zhu , Zhicheng Song , Yibo Jiang , Hod Lipson

Scrubbing surfaces is a physically demanding and time-intensive task. Removing adhered contamination requires substantial friction generated through pressure and torque or high lateral forces. Rigid robotic manipulators, while capable of…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-07-09 Jakub F. Kowalewski , Keeyon Hajjafar , Alyssa Ugent , Jeffrey Ian Lipton

Soft robots, particularly magnetic soft robots, require specialized simulation tools to accurately model their deformation under external magnetic fields. However, existing platforms often lack dedicated support for magnetic materials,…

In this review we argue for the creation of a physics of moving systems -- a locomotion "robophysics" -- which we define as the pursuit of the discovery of principles of self generated motion. Robophysics can provide an important…

We posit that embodied artificial intelligence is not only a computational, but also a materials problem. While the importance of material and structural properties in the control loop are well understood, materials can take an active role…

Robotics · Computer Science 2018-01-01 Nikolaus Correll , Christoffer Heckman

Natural organisms utilize distributed actuation through their musculoskeletal systems to adapt their gait for traversing diverse terrains or to morph their bodies for varied tasks. A longstanding challenge in robotics is to emulate this…

Robots operating in the real world will experience a range of different environments and tasks. It is essential for the robot to have the ability to adapt to its surroundings to work efficiently in changing conditions. Evolutionary robotics…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-10-21 Tønnes F. Nygaard , Charles P. Martin , David Howard , Jim Torresen , Kyrre Glette