Biology and bioinspiration of soft robotics: Actuation, sensing, and system integration

Summary: Organisms in nature grow with senses, nervous, and actuation systems coordinated in ingenious ways to sustain metabolism and other essential life activities. The understanding of biological structures and functions guide the construction of soft robotics with unprecedented performances. How...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Luquan Ren, Bingqian Li, Guowu Wei, Kunyang Wang, Zhengyi Song, Yuyang Wei, Lei Ren, Qingping Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021-09-01
Series:iScience
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221010439
Description
Summary:Summary: Organisms in nature grow with senses, nervous, and actuation systems coordinated in ingenious ways to sustain metabolism and other essential life activities. The understanding of biological structures and functions guide the construction of soft robotics with unprecedented performances. However, despite the progress in soft robotics, there still remains a big gap between man-made soft robotics and natural lives in terms of autonomy, adaptability, self-repair, durability, energy efficiency, etc. Here, the actuation and sensing strategies in the natural biological world are summarized along with their man-made counterparts applied in soft robotics. The development trends of bioinspired soft robotics toward closed loop and embodiment are proposed. Challenges for obtaining autonomous soft robotics similar to natural organisms are outlined to provide a perspective in this field.
ISSN:2589-0042