Soft Robotics

Abstract

This chapter is organized into two main parts: the first one focuses on different applications of the casting technique for developing different soft robots; the second one is an overview of the manufacturing procedures employed in soft robotics. We don’t have the ambition to cover the entire state of the art, but we aim to provide readers with guidelines to steer their research. Soft robots can be grouped into classes, according to their capabilities, as follows: locomotion, manipulation, and robots mimicking body parts (simulators). For each of these classes, we have identified key examples as means for describing the employed manufacturing procedure: (i) Locomotion—FASTT based on fiber-reinforced actuators; (ii) Manipulation—Octopus, STIFF-FLOP, Gripper that exploits different actuation strategies: cables, fluidic actuation combined with granular jamming and cable-driven under-actuation mechanism, respectively; (iii) Body parts simulator—Simulator of vocal folds that rely on the intrinsic mechanical properties of soft materials. The common denominator among these three classes is the design and prototyping of molds that replicate the shape of the robot. Molds could be made by common machinery (or also by traditional 3D printers) and were used as means for shaping the soft body.