Announcements
- New Soft Robotics Debate will be held on Aug 13th at 15:00-16:30 GMT (16-17:30 UK Summertime, 17-18:30 CET) “Soft Robotics Impact: Exploratory Research vs. Application Oriented Solutions” (IEEE Robotics & Automation Society)
- June issue of Soft Robotics is already online (New Impact Factor: 8.071)
- Call for proposals for future RoboSoft Conferences (contact: robosoft.sc@gmail.com)
Vacancies
- Group Leader in Bio-hybrid and Soft Robotics
- PhD in Biorobotics at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – Pisa
- Post Doctoral Fellow (with Ph.D.) or Research Scientist (without Ph.D.) (Morphing Matter Lab)
- Postdoc and PhD Positions: Mechatronics, Biomechanics, Control, Machine Learning at North Carolina State University (Email: ncsu@gmail.com)
Featured Videos
- This Robot’s Soft Gripper Was Inspired By Japanese Kirigami
- NUS researchers create AiFoam for robots to interact intelligently with their surroundings
- FlowIO Development Platform – the Pneumatic “Raspberry Pi” for Soft Robotics
- IFRR Global Robotics Colloquium on The Future of Robotic Manipulation
- Robotic Hair Brushing
- The Debrief: Behind the Artifact – Charlie the Fish
- A Dexterous Soft Robotic Hand for Delicate In-Hand Manipulation
- SoMo Simulation Framework – In-Hand Manipulation Matches Hardware (Soft Fingers)
- Grain-sized robots made by NTU Singapore scientists
Featured Articles
Views and Reviews
- Recent Progress of Soft Electrothermal Actuators (SoRo)
- The rise of intelligent matter (Nature)
- Robots have grasped and manipulated the imagination since 1839 (Sci Robot)
- Burrowing soft robots break new ground (Sci Robot)
- The robot explorers (Sci Robot)
- Optogenetics gets the worm (Sci Robot)
- From the Topic Editors: Soft Robotics based on Electroactive Polymers Authors (Front Robot AI)
- Soft Robotics at Small Scales: From Materials to Robotic Functionalities (Front Research Topic)
- On the Planning, Control, and Perception of Soft Robotic End-Effectors (Front Research Topic)
Soft New Materials & Actuators
- Heterogeneous Hydrogel Structures with Spatiotemporal Reconfigurability using Addressable and Tunable Voxels (Adv Mat – featured on the cover)
- Wireless Electrohydrodynamic Actuators for Propulsion and Positioning of Miniaturized Floating Robots (Adv Mat)
- Design and Control of Pneumatic Systems for Soft Robotics: A Simulation Approach (IEEE RA-L)
- Optimal Soft Composites for Under‐Actuated Soft Robots (Adv Mat Tech)
- Muscle-fiber array inspired, multiple-mode, pneumatic artificial muscles through planar design and one-step rolling fabrication (Nat Sci Rob)
- Multimaterial Pneumatic Soft Actuators and Robots through a Planar Laser Cutting and Stacking Approach (Adv Intel Sys)
- High-Force Fabric-Based Pneumatic Actuators With Asymmetric Chambers and Interference-Reinforced Structure for Soft Wearable Assistive Gloves (IEEE RA-L)
- Soft Actuators Based on Liquid–Vapor Phase Change Composites (SoRo)
- Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Stretchable and Transparent Poly(Ethyleneglycol-Sebacate) Elastomers with Autonomous Self-Healing and Capacitive Properties (SoRo)
- Toward a Common Framework and Database of Materials for Soft Robotics (SoRo)
- Electrostatic footpads enable agile insect-scale soft robots with trajectory control (Sci Robot)
- Digital light processing of liquid crystal elastomers for self-sensing artificial muscles (Sci Adv)
- Biologically inspired electrostatic artificial muscles for insect-sized robots (IJRR)
- Fully Polymeric Domes as High-Stroke Biasing System for Soft Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (Front Robot AI)
- Feasibility of Fiber Reinforcement Within Magnetically Actuated Soft Continuum Robots (Front Robot AI)
Soft Sensing, Electronic, & Skins
- 2D-Material-integrated hydrogels as multifunctional protective skins for soft robots (Mater Horz)
- Robust Multimodal Indirect Sensing for Soft Robots Via Neural Network-Aided Filter-Based Estimation (SoRo)
- A Flexible, Acoustic Localized Sensor with Mass Block–Beam Structure Based on Polydimethylsiloxane–Silver Nanowires (SoRo)
- Novel insights into the design of stretchable electrical systems (Sci Adv)
Soft Robot Fabrication Techniques
- Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot (SoRo)
- Fully 3D-printed soft robots with integrated fluidic circuitry (Sci Adv)
Soft Locomotion
- The effect of batoid inspired undulating motions on the propulsive forces of a circular planform (Phys Fluid)
- Controlling subterranean forces enables a fast, steerable, burrowing soft robot (Si Robot)
- Soft-bodied adaptive multimodal locomotion strategies in fluid-filled confined spaces (Sci Adv)
- Dynamic Turning of a Soft Quadruped Robot by Changing Phase Difference (Front Robot AI)
Soft Manipulation & Grasping
Soft Robot Application
- Toward Task Autonomy in Robotic Cardiac Ablation: Learning-Based Kinematic Control of Soft Tendon-Driven Catheters (SoRo)
- Modelling and implementation of soft bio-mimetic turtle using echo state network and soft pneumatic actuators (Sci Rep)
- A modular, multi-arm concentric tube robot system with application to transnasal surgery for orbital tumors (IJRR)
Soft Robot Theory: Learning, Modelling, Control
- Discrete Cosserat Approach for Closed-Chain Soft Robots: Application to the Fin-Ray Finger (IEEE T-RO)
- Task space adaptation via the learning of gait controllers of magnetic soft millirobots (IJRR)
- SoGut: A Soft Robotic Gastric Simulator (SoRo)
- Modal-Based Kinematics and Contact Detection of Soft Robots (SoRo)
- Global Vision-Based Formation Control of Soft Robotic Fish Swarm (SoRo)
- A Deep Learning Method for Vision Based Force Prediction of a Soft Fin Ray Gripper Using Simulation Data (Front Robot AI)
- Development of an Electrooculogram-activated Wearable Soft Hand Exoskeleton
- Soft Robotics Theory: Learning, Modelling & Control (IEEE IECBES)
- Criticality-Driven Evolution of Adaptable Morphologies of Voxel-Based Soft-Robots (Front Robot AI)
Embodied Intelligence & Morphological Computation
Featured News Articles
- Soft Legged Robot Uses Pneumatic Circuitry to Walk Like a Turtle (IEEE Spectrum)
- Soft robotic muscle offers quick activation (NZU website)
- Navy looks to develop drones inspired by nature (The Drive)
- Robot walks, senses without help from electronics (ASME)
- Researchers craft materials that move in sync (ASME)
- Game-playing robotic hand 3D printed in single process (Scientific American)