Paper 1: Joyee, Erina & Pan, Yayue. (2019). A Fully Three-Dimensional Printed Inchworm-Inspired Soft Robot with Magnetic Actuation. Soft Robotics. 6. https://doi.org/10.1089/soro.2018.0082.
This paper details a 3D-printed, tetherless, inchworm-inspired soft robot using magnetic actuation for linear locomotion and crawling, with multi-material composition (magnetic particle–polymer composite and flexible polymer) achieving a stride length of 5mm, a linear locomotion efficiency of 93.28% and maximum bending deformation of 4.5mm.
Paper 2: Miriyev, Aslan & Stack, Kenneth & Lipson, Hod. (2017). Soft material for soft actuators. Nature Communications. 8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00685-3.
This paper proposes a soft robust composite material that combines the elastic properties of a polymeric matrix and the extreme volume change accompanying the liquid-vapor transition to develop a self-contained electrically driven soft actuator that can be used as an artificial muscle.
Paper 3: Baghbani Kordmahale, S., Qu, J., Muliana, A. et al. A hydraulic soft microgripper for biological studies. Sci Rep 12, 21403 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25713-1.
This paper details a microscale hydraulic soft gripper built on PDMS that could be used to manipulate an ant without damage. The gripper consists of three finger-like columns on a circular membrane which could be opened/closed by varying the pressure inside a cavity.
Other Related Papers:
Lyu, Liang & Li, Fen & Wu, Kang & Deng, Pan & Jeong, Seunghee & Wu, Zhigang & Ding, Han. (2019). Bio-inspired untethered fully soft robots in liquid actuated by induced energy gradients. National Science Review. 6. 970-981. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwz083.
Huang, H., Sakar, M.S., Petruska, A.J., Pané, S., & Nelson, B.J. (2016). Soft micromachines with programmable motility and morphology. Nature Communications, 7. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12263