Material, Design and Fabrication of Soft Robots

Elastomer, hydrogel, shape memory polymers, electro-active polymers, and liquid metal possess some advantages and special performance, especially in soft robots. The flexibility of soft robots, for example, also derives from biologically inspired structural designs and numerous additive manufacturing methods.

This chapter provides a detailed overview of the above five types of materials. The concepts, composition, classification, synthesis principles and properties of these materials are discussed in details. We also summarize and classify the design of release structures for soft robots, including crawling soft robots on land and underwater soft-bodied robots. We analysis and summarize the design and manufacturing methods of soft robots through the existing relevant research results, and finally elaborate on the problems facing future development, in the hope that it can help and guide the direction of research related to soft robots. 

Keywords: Soft robotics, Soft actuators, Compliant materials, Dielectric elastomers, Shape memory alloy, 3D printing, Bionic structure.