Soft Robotics: Biological Inspiration, State of the Art, and Future Research

Traditional robots have rigid underlying structures that limit their ability to interact with their environment. For example, conventional robot manipulators have rigid links and can manipulate objects using only their specialised end effectors. These robots often encounter difficulties operating in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied bionics and biomechanics 2008, Vol.5 (3), p.99-117
Main Authors: Trivedi, Deepak, Rahn, Christopher D, Kier, William M, Walker, Ian D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Elephantidae
Manipulation
Octopus
Robotics
Robots
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Summary:Traditional robots have rigid underlying structures that limit their ability to interact with their environment. For example, conventional robot manipulators have rigid links and can manipulate objects using only their specialised end effectors. These robots often encounter difficulties operating in unstructured and highly congested environments. A variety of animals and plants exhibit complex movement with soft structures devoid of rigid components. Muscular hydrostats (e.g. octopus arms and elephant trunks) are almost entirely composed of muscle and connective tissue and plant cells can change shape when pressurised by osmosis. Researchers have been inspired by biology to design and build soft robots. With a soft structure and redundant degrees of freedom, these robots can be used for delicate tasks in cluttered and/or unstructured environments. This paper discusses the novel capabilities of soft robots, describes examples from nature that provide biological inspiration, surveys the state of the art and outlines existing challenges in soft robot design, modelling, fabrication and control.
ISSN:1176-2322
1754-2103
DOI:10.1080/11762320802557865