Definition
Soft robots are robotic systems with purposefully designed compliant elements embedded into their mechanical structure.
Overview
The physical characteristics of animals’ bodies are substantially different from those of classic robots. Elastic tendons, ligaments, and muscles enable animals to robustly interact with the external world and perform dynamic tasks (Fig. 1). The function of elastic elements in natural bodies is discussed in Roberts and Azizi (2011) and summarized in Table 1.
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Notes
- 1.
The term continuous robots is also used, albeit less frequently
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Della Santina, C., Catalano, M.G., Bicchi, A. (2020). Soft Robots. In: Ang, M.H., Khatib, O., Siciliano, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_146-1
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