Soft Robotic Manipulator

Soft robotic manipulators are flexible, adaptable robotic arms designed for safe interaction with humans and unstructured environments, aiming to improve dexterity and compliance in tasks like bathing assistance and object manipulation. Current research emphasizes developing accurate kinematic and dynamic models, often employing reduced-order models like piecewise constant or affine curvature approximations, or data-driven approaches such as neural networks and transformers to address the inherent complexity of soft robot behavior. These advancements are improving control precision and enabling dynamic task-space control, leading to more robust and versatile soft robots with applications in healthcare, manufacturing, and exploration.