Soft Robotics

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Overview

Soft robotics investigates how deformable machines can move, manipulate objects, and assist people while adapting to contact and irregular surroundings. Common designs use pneumatic or hydraulic chambers, tendons, dielectric elastomers, and magnetic or shape-changing structures; models range from Cosserat rods and finite-element methods to learned dynamics. Control approaches include model-predictive control, reinforcement learning, visual servoing, and tactile or proprioceptive feedback, evaluated in tasks such as grasping, locomotion, wearable assistance, and medical navigation. A central challenge is balancing accurate, efficient modeling and control with the changing shapes, hysteresis, manufacturing variation, and sim-to-real gaps that make soft robots adaptable in the first place.

Latest papers

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231 papers14 papers in the last four weeks, down 53% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Distal-Stable Beam for Continuum Robots

    Apr 1, 2026Ryouichi Saito, Takahiro Koide, Yuya Tanaka +3Continuum Robot DesignMechanism Design

    Ryouichi Saito, Takahiro Koide, Yasutaka Nakashima, Motoji Yamamoto are with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan. · Takahiro Koide, Ayato Kanada are with the Department of Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering at The University of Electro-Communications, 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu-shi, Tokyo, 182-8585

  2. A soft and lightweight fabric-based pneumatic interface for multimodal fingertip tactile feedback

    Apr 1, 2026Rui Chen, Daniele Leonardis, Antonio FrisoliPneumatic ActuationHaptic Feedback

    Institute of Mechanical Intelligence, School of Advanced Studies Sant’Anna (SSSA), 56127 Pisa, Italy.

  3. Functional Force-Aware Retargeting from Virtual Human Demos to Soft Robot Policies

    Apr 1, 2026Uksang Yoo, Mengjia Zhu, Evan Pezent +8Motion RetargetingRobot Imitation Learning

    The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University · Meta Reality Labs

  4. An Integrated Soft Robotic System for Measuring Vital Signs in Search and Rescue Environments

    Apr 1, 2026Jorge Francisco García-Samartín, Christyan Cruz Ulloa, Andrés Sánchez-Silva +2Heart Rate EstimationSearch-and-Rescue Robotics

    Centro de Automática y Robótica (UPM - CSIC), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

  5. An Ergonomic, Customizable Soft Robotic Glove toward Personalized Hand Rehabilitation

    Apr 1, 2026Rui Chen, Firman Isma Serdana, Domenico Chiaradia +11Robotic Hand DesignAssistive Robotics

    Institute of Mechanical Intelligence and Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), 56127, Pisa, Italy · The Biorobotics Inst. and Dept. of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy · CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Institute of Humanoid Robots, School of Engineering Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China +3

  6. A Foldable and Agile Soft Electromagnetic Robot for Multimodal Navigation in Confined and Unstructured Environments

    Mar 30, 2026Zhihao Lv, Xiaoyong Zhang, Mengfan Zhang +5Robot LocomotionSoft Robotics

    State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, Key Laboratory of Soft Machines and Smart Devices of Zhejiang Province, Center for X-mechanics, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People’s Republic of China.

  7. Probe-to-Grasp Manipulation Using Self-Sensing Pneumatic Variable-Stiffness Joints

    Mar 29, 2026Ngoc Duy Tran, Yeman Fan, Feng Dai +5Robotic GraspingDeformable Object Manipulation

  8. Design, Modelling and Characterisation of a Miniature Fibre-Reinforced Soft Bending Actuator for Endoluminal Interventions

    Mar 25, 2026Xiangyi Tan, Aoife McDonald-Bowyer, Danail Stoyanov +1Soft Pneumatic ActuatorsSoft Robotics

    All authors are with the UCL Hawkes Institute, University College London, WC1E 6BT, UK.

  9. A Sensorless, Inherently Compliant Anthropomorphic Musculoskeletal Hand Driven by Electrohydraulic Actuators

    Mar 25, 2026Misato Sonoda, Ronan Hinchet, Amirhossein Kazemipour +2Robotic Hand DesignRobotic Manipulation

    Soft Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich, Switzerland · The University of Tokyo, Japan

  10. Trajectory Generation for Underactuated Soft Robot Manipulators using Discrete Elastic Rod Dynamics

    Mar 23, 2026Beibei Liu, Akua K. Dickson, Ran Jing +1Robot Motion GenerationTrajectory Generation

    Division of Systems Engineering, Boston University, Boston MA, USA. · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston MA, USA.

  11. RAFL: Generalizable Sim-to-Real of Soft Robots with Residual Acceleration Field Learning

    Mar 23, 2026Dong Heon Cho, Boyuan ChenSynthetic-to-Real Domain AdaptationResidual Dynamics Learning

    Department of Computer Science, Duke University, 308 Research Dr., Durham, 27705, NC, USA · Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science, 121 Hudson Hall, Durham, 27708, NC, USA · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 100 Science Dr., Durham, 27708, NC, USA

  12. Functionalization of Situated Robots via Vapour

    Mar 23, 2026Kadri-Ann Pankratov, Leonid Zinatullin, Adele Metsniit +2RoboticsMaterials Science

    authors are with Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Nooruse 1, 50411 Tartu, Estonia

  13. Generalized Task-Driven Design of Soft Robots via Reduced-Order FEM-based Surrogate Modeling

    Mar 20, 2026Yao Yao, David Howard, Perla MaiolinoSoft RoboticsSurrogate Modeling

    Oxford Robotics Institute, University of Oxford, UK · CSIRO Robotics, CSIRO, Australia

  14. Accurate Open-Loop Control of a Soft Continuum Robot Using Visually Learned Latent Dynamics

    Mar 20, 2026Henrik Krauss, Johann Licher, Naoya Takeishi +2Robotic ControlContinuum Robot Control

    Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 153-8904, Japan. · Institute of Assembly Technology and Robotics, Leibniz University Hannover, 30823 Germany. · Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 153-8904, Japan.

  15. Evolving Embodied Intelligence: Graph Neural Network--Driven Co-Design of Morphology and Control in Soft Robotics

    Mar 20, 2026Jianqiang Wang, Shuaiqun Pan, Alvaro Serra-Gomez +2Robot Morphology-Control Co-DesignRobot Policy Adaptation

    LIACS, Leiden University · School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University · Department of Computer Science, Loughborough University

  16. Zero Shot Deformation Reconstruction for Soft Robots Using a Flexible Sensor Array and Cage Based 3D Gaussian Modeling

    Mar 20, 2026Linrui Shou, Zilang Chen, Wenjia Xu +2Deformable Shape ReconstructionSoft Robotics

    University of Notre Dame · University of Washington

  17. A Closed-Form CLF-CBF Controller for Whole-Body Continuum Soft Robot Collision Avoidance

    Mar 19, 2026Kiwan Wong, Maximillian Stölzle, Wei Xiao +1Control Lyapunov FunctionsContinuum Robot Control

    Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA · Robotics Engineering Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA

  18. SOFTMAP: Sim2Real Soft Robot Forward Modeling via Topological Mesh Alignment and Physics Prior

    Mar 19, 2026Ziyong Ma, Uksang Yoo, Jonathan Francis +3Soft RoboticsSim-to-Real Transfer

    Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, USA · Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence, USA · School of Computer Science, The University of Sydney, Australia +2

  19. Tendon-Actuated Robots with a Tapered, Flexible Polymer Backbone: Design, Fabrication, and Modeling

    Mar 19, 2026Harald Minde Hansen, Nandita Gallacher, Nicholas B. Andrews +3Continuum Robot ControlTendon-Driven Actuation

    Mechatronics, Robotics and Operation Section, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Meyrin, Switzerland · Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA · Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

  20. Inductance-Based Force Self-Sensing in Fiber-Reinforced Pneumatic Twisted-and-Coiled Actuators

    Mar 19, 2026Yunsong Zhang, Tianlin Li, Mingyang Yang +1Soft Pneumatic ActuatorsSoft Robotics

    Robotics and Control Laboratory, School of Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics, and the State Key Laboratory of Turbulence and Complex Systems, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

  21. Consistency-Driven Dual LSTM Models for Kinematic Control of a Wearable Soft Robotic Arm

    Mar 18, 2026Xingyu Chen, Yi Xiong, Li WenCycle ConsistencyRobot Learning

    School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

  22. Development of Low-Cost and Bidirectional Syringe Pumps for Soft Robotics Applications

    Mar 17, 2026Krishamsu Subedi Chhetri, Aryan Mayor, Elise Corbin +2Pneumatic ActuationSoft Robotics

    Evolutionary Robotics Laboratory Department of Computer Science, Union College, Schenectady, NY, USA

  23. Reconciling distributed compliance with high-performance control in continuum soft robotics

    Mar 17, 2026Vito Daniele Perfetta, Daniel Feliu-Talegon, Ebrahim Shahabi +1Continuum Robot ControlSoft Robotics

    Cognitive Robotics Department, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft 2628 CD, The Netherlands.

  24. Multi-Mode Pneumatic Artificial Muscles Driven by Hybrid Positive-Negative Pressure

    Mar 16, 2026Siyuan Feng, Ruoyu Feng, Shuguang LiPneumatic ActuationSoft Pneumatic Actuators

    Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. · Beijing Key Laboratory of Transformative High-end Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

  25. From Folding Mechanics to Robotic Function: A Unified Modeling Framework for Compliant Origami

    Mar 16, 2026Bohan Zhang, Bo Wang, Huajiang Ouyang +5RoboticsSoft Robotics

    Department of Engineering Mechanics,Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China · Shenzhen Research Institute of Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shenzhen, 518063, China · School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China +5

  26. Fabric Pneumatic Artificial Muscle-Based Head-Neck Exosuit: Design, Modeling, and Evaluation

    Mar 13, 2026Katalin Schäffer, Ian Bales, Haohan Zhang +1Soft Pneumatic ActuatorsAssistive Robotics

    Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. · Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, 1083 Budapest, Hungary. · Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA.

  27. Octopus-inspired Distributed Control for Soft Robotic Arms: A Graph Neural Network-Based Attention Policy with Environmental Interaction

    Mar 10, 2026Linxin Hou, Qirui Wu, Zhihang Qin +2Continuum Robot ControlDecentralized MARL

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore · Department of Computer Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore · Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore +2

  28. Receptogenesis in a Vascularized Robotic Embodiment

    Mar 10, 2026Kadri-Ann Pankratov, Leonid Zinatullin, Hans Priks +6RoboticsSoft Robotics

    Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Nooruse 1, 50411 Tartu, Estonia · Institute of Technology, Via Morego, 30, 16163 Genova, Italy

  29. Model-Free Co-Optimization of Manufacturable Sensor Layouts and Deformation Proprioception

    Mar 9, 2026Yingjun Tian, Guoxin Fang, Aoran Lyu +5Deformable Shape ReconstructionWearable Sensing

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom · Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

  30. A General Lie-Group Framework for Continuum Soft Robot Modeling

    Mar 9, 2026Lingxiao Xun, Benoît Rosa, Jérôme Szewczyk +1Soft RoboticsLie Group Methods

    Sorbonne Université, CNRS UMR 7222, Inserm U1150, ISIR, F-75005, Paris, France. · Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, INSERM, ICube, UMR7357, Strasbourg, France.