Day 2: (Wed Jan 15, Week 1) Soft Robotics Overview

New Assignments

New assignment, due noon Wed Jan 22: Exercise: Lateral Literature Search. Please submit to Exercise 2 Shared Folder. Please submit early so I can review posts before class.

Administrative

  • Reminder: we don’t have class on Monday, we are off for Martin Luther King Day.

  • Anyone using Zotero?

Agenda

  1. Discussion of Rus and Tolley 2015 survey paper [R74].

    • Quick introduction and walkthrough.

    • Non-Glossary

    • What was especially confusing?

    • What unfamiliar terminology did you write down?

  2. Discussion of a selection of exercise 1 papers

  3. brief mid-class break

  4. Brief overview of the lab by fellow faculty Robert “Zach” Zacharias.

  5. Lateral search demo (related to next exercise):

    1. We’ll pick a paper for which we want to find similar, newer work.

      Polygerinos, Panagiotis, Zheng Wang, Kevin C. Galloway, Robert J. Wood, and Conor J. Walsh. “Soft Robotic Glove for Combined Assistance and At-Home Rehabilitation.” Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Wearable Robotics, 73 (November 1, 2015): 135–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2014.08.014. [R71]

    2. Choose a root paper from its references: this is going backward in time to find earlier work. In this case I picked a broad survey paper:

      Heo, Pilwon, Gwang Min Gu, Soo-jin Lee, Kyehan Rhee, and Jung Kim. “Current Hand Exoskeleton Technologies for Rehabilitation and Assistive Engineering.” International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing 13, no. 5 (May 1, 2012): 807–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-012-0107-2. [R21]

    3. Look the root paper up at Web of Science to examine its Citations list: this is going forward in time to find new work. This list could potentially grow each passing year. The sample above has at least 367 citations, of which at least 94 have the keyword ‘soft’.

  6. Brainstorming session. Let’s consider human applications of soft rubbery robots. This is intended to be an imaginative exercise, so no holds barred.

    1. We’ll break out into two groups.

    2. Brainstorm three or so project ideas.

    3. Make quick sketches on the whiteboard tables.

Exercise 1 Bibliography

Following are some very loose classifications.

Human and Medical

  • [R7] L. Campioni et al., “Preliminary Evaluation of a Soft Wearable Robot for Shoulder Movement Assistance,” IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, pp. 1–1, 2025, doi: 10.1109/TMRB.2025.3527708.

  • [R8] M. Chen, D. Wang, J. Zou, L. Sun, J. Sun, and G. Jin, “A Multi-Module Soft Robotic Arm with Soft End Effector for Minimally Invasive Surgery,” in 2019 2nd World Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Manufacturing (WCMEIM), Nov. 2019, pp. 461–465. doi: 10.1109/WCMEIM48965.2019.00097.

  • [R27] T. T. Hoang et al., “A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation,” Sensors, vol. 21, no. 22, p. 7638, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.3390/s21227638.

  • [R39] T. Law, B. F. Malle, and M. Scheutz, “A Touching Connection: How Observing Robotic Touch Can Affect Human Trust in a Robot,” International Journal of Social Robotics, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 2003–2019, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1007/s12369-020-00729-7.

  • [R57] C. McGinn and D. Dooley, “What Should Robots Feel Like?,” in Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, in HRI ’20. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Mar. 2020, pp. 281–288. doi: 10.1145/3319502.3374835.

Materials

  • [R17] A. M. Gaikwad, A. M. Zamarayeva, J. Rousseau, H. Chu, I. Derin, and D. A. Steingart, “Highly Stretchable Alkaline Batteries Based on an Embedded Conductive Fabric,” Advanced Materials, vol. 24, no. 37, pp. 5071–5076, 2012, doi: 10.1002/adma.201201329.

  • [A1] K. Y. Choi and H. Ishii, “Therms-Up!: DIY Inflatables and Interactive Materials by Upcycling Wasted Thermoplastic Bags,” in Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, in TEI ’21. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Feb. 2021, pp. 1–8. doi: 10.1145/3430524.3442457.

  • [R70] A. J. Partridge et al., “ReRobot: Recycled Materials for Trustworthy Soft Robots,” in 2022 IEEE 5th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Apr. 2022, pp. 148–153. doi: 10.1109/RoboSoft54090.2022.9762170.

Fabrication

  • [R33] T. J. Jones, E. Jambon-Puillet, J. Marthelot, and P.-T. Brun, “Bubble casting soft robotics,” Nature, vol. 599, no. 7884, pp. 229–233, Nov. 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04029-6.

  • [R66] C. D. Onal, R. J. Wood, and D. Rus, “Towards printable robotics: Origami-inspired planar fabrication of three-dimensional mechanisms,” in 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 2011, pp. 4608–4613. doi: 10.1109/ICRA.2011.5980139.

  • [R107] S. Yim, C. Sung, S. Miyashita, D. Rus, and S. Kim, “Animatronic soft robots by additive folding,” The International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 611–628, May 2018, doi: 10.1177/0278364918772023.

Locomotion

  • [R46] H.-T. Lin, G. G. Leisk, and B. Trimmer, “GoQBot: A caterpillar-inspired soft-bodied rolling robot,” Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, vol. 6, no. 2, p. 026007, Apr. 2011, doi: 10.1088/1748-3182/6/2/026007.

  • [R52] S. Mao, E. Dong, H. Jin, M. Xu, and K. H. Low, “Locomotion and gait analysis of multi-limb soft robots driven by smart actuators,” in 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Oct. 2016, pp. 2438–2443. doi: 10.1109/IROS.2016.7759380.

  • [R55] A. D. Marchese, C. D. Onal, and D. Rus, “Autonomous Soft Robotic Fish Capable of Escape Maneuvers Using Fluidic Elastomer Actuators,” Soft Robotics, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 75–87, Feb. 2014, doi: 10.1089/soro.2013.0009.

  • [R91] M. T. Tolley et al., “A Resilient, Untethered Soft Robot,” Soft Robotics, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 213–223, Sep. 2014, doi: 10.1089/soro.2014.0008.

Actuation

  • [A3] M. Kim, B. Kim, J. Koh, and H. Yi, “Flexural biomimetic responsive building façade using a hybrid soft robot actuator and fabric membrane,” Automation in Construction, vol. 145, p. 104660, Jan. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104660.

  • [R78] W. Shan, T. Lu, and C. Majidi, “Soft-matter composites with electrically tunable elastic rigidity,” Smart Mater. Struct., vol. 22, no. 8, p. 085005, Jul. 2013, doi: 10.1088/0964-1726/22/8/085005.

  • [R20] J. Guo, C. Xiang, T. Helps, M. Taghavi, and J. Rossiter, “Electroactive textile actuators for wearable and soft robots,” in 2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Apr. 2018, pp. 339–343. doi: 10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8404942.

  • [R67] J. Ou, L. Yao, D. Tauber, J. Steimle, R. Niiyama, and H. Ishii, “jamSheets: thin interfaces with tunable stiffness enabled by layer jamming,” in Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, in TEI ’14. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Feb. 2014, pp. 65–72. doi: 10.1145/2540930.2540971.

  • [R89] J. Tirado, J. Jørgensen, and A. Rafsanjani, “Earthworm-inspired multimodal soft actuators,” in 2023 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Apr. 2023, pp. 1–6. doi: 10.1109/RoboSoft55895.2023.10122032.

Sensing

  • [R99] B. Wright, D. M. Vogt, R. J. Wood, and A. Jusufi, “Soft Sensors for Curvature Estimation under Water in a Soft Robotic Fish,” in 2019 2nd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Apr. 2019, pp. 367–371. doi: 10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2019.8722806.

Biomimicry

  • [R61] S. A. Morin, R. F. Shepherd, S. W. Kwok, A. A. Stokes, A. Nemiroski, and G. M. Whitesides, “Camouflage and Display for Soft Machines,” Science, vol. 337, no. 6096, pp. 828–832, Aug. 2012, doi: 10.1126/science.1222149.

  • [R103] Y. Yamada, “Feasibility Study on Botanical Robotics: Ophiocordyceps-like Biodegradable Laminated Foam-Based Soft Actuators With Germination Ability,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 3777–3784, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2021.3061355.

  • [R35] S. Kim, C. Laschi, and B. Trimmer, “Soft robotics: A bioinspired evolution in robotics,” Trends in Biotechnology, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 287–294, May 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2013.03.002.