Preface

This book “Introduction to Advanced Soft Robotics” is the Vol. 2 of the eBook series “Frontiers in Electrical Engineering”. It comprises seven chapters written by the leading researchers in this field. Soft robotics is an important emerging sub-discipline of robotics. To enable readers to better understand soft body robotics, the authors try to use an easy-to-understand, illustrated form to show the contents of this book, avoiding the excessive use of cumbersome mathematical theory knowledge. At present, many well-known colleges and universities have increased the teaching courses of soft body robotics along with robotics. Many of the terminologies used in this volume for many soft robotics are also directly quoted from the field of robotics.

In Chapter 1, Qu et al. focuses on the basics of soft-bodied robots. The chapter first introduces the definition, characteristics, and applications of soft robots, then, the origin of soft robots and how early scholars embarked on the study of this emerging field are described. Finally, we introduce the development of soft robots through a large number of literature surveys, list many landmark achievements that have had a significant impact on the field of soft robotics and provide analyses of the reasons for the popularity of the field and its rapid development.

In Chapter 2, Li et al. focuses on drive technology for soft-body robots. This chapter first introduces the definition of soft body drive. Then, the classification of soft body drives and the performance comparison of different types of soft body drives are introduced. Finally, this chapter introduces the commonly used soft body drive methods in detail, including fluid drive, cable drive, shape memory material drive, electroactive polymer drive, etc., and puts forward the challenges of the current soft body drive.

In Chapter 3, Liu et al. mainly introduces the sensing technology of soft robots. This chapter first classifies the soft robot sensing technology, including the overview of soft robot sensing technology, and the comparison of different categories of sensing technology, etc. Then , we introduce the soft robot sensing technology in detail, including vision-based sensing technology, haptic-based sensing technology, and fusion sensing technology, etc. Finally, we briefly introduce the sensing integration technology for the control of soft robots.

In Chapter 4, Li et al. focuses on the materials, design, and manufacturing of soft robots. This chapter first introduces the commonly used soft materials for soft robots, including elastomers, electroactive polymers, shape memory polymers, hydrogels, liquid metals, etc. Then, the structural design methods for soft robots are introduced, which mainly include bionic structural design, variable stiffness structural design (e.g. antagonist principle, variable stiffness of shape memory materials, blocking principle, electric current variable fluid, low melting point alloy, magnetic fluid, etc.) as well as other special structural design methods. Finally, soft robot manufacturing methods are also described, including casting and molding, shape deposition manufacturing, 3D printing, and so on.

In Chapter 5, the modeling and control of soft robots are introduced by Fan et al. This chapter first introduces the kinematic modeling methods of soft robots, including the segmental constant curvature model and the Cosserat rod theory in the mechanical model. Then, this chapter introduces the dynamics modeling methods of soft robots, including the centralized parametric model, the "virtual" rigid linkage robot model, the Cosserat rod model, and the machine learning method. Finally, we introduce soft robot manufacturing methods, including casting, shape deposition manufacturing, 3D printing, and so on. In the end, the control strategies of soft robots are introduced, including model-based control methods, model-free control methods, and hybrid control strategies.

In Chapter 6, Cui et al. mainly introduces the application of soft robots. This chapter mainly introduces the scenario applications of soft robots in underwater, agriculture, medical and industrial fields. It has a broad application value in non-destructive grasping, safe operation, and wearable devices.

In the last chapter, Qu et al. focuses on the challenges and prospects of soft robots. This chapter mainly introduces the main challenges and future development trends of soft robots in the directions of materials, design and fabrication, actuation and sensing, modeling, and control.

We would like to express our gratitude to all the authors for their excellent contributions. In addition to the main authors participating in the writing, this book also benefits from the support and help of Zhenping Yu, Haozhi Huang, Jia You, Chengyao Deng, Yin Sun, Liping Jiang, Zhe Hou, Yunrui Zhang, Jiayi Zhang, Jiajia Zhang, Jingjing Lu, Baijin Mao, Yining Xu, and Weichen Wang. We also wish to thank the entire team of the Bentham Science Publishers, particularly Mrs. Fariya Zulfiqar (Manager Publications), Mrs. Humaira Hashmi (Editorial Manager Publications), and Mr. Obaid Sadiq (Manager Bentham Books) for their efficient handling of this book at all stages of its publication. We are confident that this volume of the eBook series will receive wide appreciation from the researchers.