IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2016 - 20

carbon nanotubes, and graphene inks.
Compliant semiconductors are also
needed to perform embedded control
and computation. Instead of relying on
silicone integrated circuits, plastic, and
even elastic, semiconductors (termed
stretchtronics) can be embedded within
and across the soft robotic device.
Soft Robotics Applications
Due to their versatility and range of
advantages, soft robots have the poten-
tial to provide solutions for industrial
applications that rigid robots are not
able to solve with satisfaction. For
example, in agriculture, most fruits and
vegetables are manually picked since a
metallic gripper would damage the
product. Self-adapting soft robotic grip-
pers are therefore an ideal solution.
Another driving factor for applica-
tions of soft robots is their previously
mentioned inherent safety. Soft robot
bodies will play a crucial role in
human-robot interaction in factories
(e.g., robotic coworkers, wearable assis-
tance) and private spaces (e.g., house-
hold robots) as well as public spaces
(e.g., guides in museums). In addition,
softness and safety play a key role in the
field of medicine and health care. The
soft-soft interfacing of soft robotics and
biological tissue is much safer, less inva-
sive, and more effective than the soft-
hard interfacing of traditional rigid
medical devices. Robotic health care is a
sector that can readily benefit from soft
materials and mechanisms, including
support robots in patient care (lifting
and carrying patients), minimally inva-

Are You
Moving?

sive surgery, wearable devices for mobil-
ity restoration (e.g., rehabilitation after a
stroke), and implantable devices to treat
conditions following illness, trauma,
surgery, or age-related degradation (e.g.,
compliant ventricular assist devices).
The shift in demographics toward an
elderly population in the United States,
Japan, and Europe requires more effec-
tive treatments for age-related decline.
Soft robotics is highly suited to this role
in both physical and mental support, for
example, as adaptive daily living tools
and as cognitive and sensory exercisers.
Consider an elderly person with mobil-
ity problems. The state-of-the-art
robotic solution is the rigid exoskeleton,
such as the Cyberdyne Systems' HAL
suit, effective for only a constrained set
of environments and users. A soft ro-
botic exosuit would be more versatile
and comfortable, being compliant when
needed, for example, when the wearer
was able to move on their own, but
would transition to active muscle assis-
tance when needed. We can extend the
notion of wearable soft robotic devices
to almost any clothing; a blind person
could use a comfortable and nonobtru-
sive soft robotic jacket that warns him
or her of dangerous situations, or a sur-
geon could use superthin soft robotic
gloves that give extra tactile sensory
input and recording capabilities as he or
she performs an operation.
Entertainment and edutainment are
fields in which soft robotics is perhaps
set for its most meteoric rise in the short
term. Over the last year, virtual reality
has come to the fore as a consumer-level

technology. These devices are extremely
sophisticated in the visual and audio
senses, but physical representations of
the virtual environment are sorely lack-
ing-the user is physically isolated from
the virtual scene. Soft robots offer safe,
low cost, versatile, and effective technol-
ogies for a radical enhancement of vir-
tual reality devices by delivering realistic
tactile and physical interaction sensa-
tion, including pushing, stroking, and
object interaction.
Another, perhaps surprising, field of
application is architecture. Our built
environment is a fusion of soft struc-
tures (comfortable chairs and soft fur-
nishing) and hard surfaces (walls and
ceilings). The concept of morphological
computation suggests that soft robotics
structures will allow highly adaptive liv-
ing spaces that are able, enriched by
smart sensing materials, to react to envi-
ronmental changes. Why should a wall
be rigid when it could morph smoothly
into a different shape? Even soft-smart
furniture is conceivable in this context.
The future of soft robotics looks
bright, and we have only briefly touched
on its potential to generate exciting new
technologies and new applications that
were science fiction but a few years ago.
Soft robotics allows us to think beyond
classical robotic approaches by using
other components than metal, rigid
plastics, and electric motors. Robotics is
changing and becoming softer and safer.
We will have to change the way we think
about robots; out with the dated rigid
robot dance and in with the new smooth
and natural soft robot dance!

Don't miss an issue of this magazine-
update your contact information now!
Update your information by:
E-MAIL: address-change@ieee.org
PHONE: +1 800 678 4333 in the United States
or +1 732 981 0060 outside
the United States
If you require additional assistance
regarding your IEEE mailings,
visit the IEEE Support Center
at supportcenter.ieee.org.
© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/BRIANAJACKSON
http://supportcenter.ieee.org http://www.ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/BRIANAJACKSON
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2016
