Solutions to just about every hard engineering problem in robotics can be found in the biology of animals, where nature seems to be telling us to ‘take a softer approach’

A leading researcher in this field, Rolf Pfeifer (AI Lab, University of Zurich) took his inspiration from work on ‘embodied cognition’.

His criteria for soft robotics:

  • soft to the touch
  • soft in their interaction
  • soft and natural in their movements

Soft robotics is part of a much bigger subject called ‘bio-inspired robotics‘.

A lot of this subject is devoted to locomotion, so I thought I would track down an excellent video on this aspect:

The topic of soft robotics has its own peer-reviewed journal SoRo.

According to this press release the journal:

“provides the latest research and developments on topics such as”:

  • soft material creation, characterization, and modeling
  • flexible and degradable electronics
  • soft actuators and sensors
  • control and simulation of highly deformable structures
  • biomechanics
  • control of soft animals and tissues
  • biohybrid devices and living machines
  • design and fabrication of conformable machines