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. 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.

  2. Unified Structural-Hydrodynamic Modeling of Underwater Underactuated Mechanisms and Soft Robots

    Mar 9, 2026Chenrui Zhang, Yiyuan Zhang, Yunfei Ye +3Robot System IdentificationUnderwater Robotics

    Department of Mechanical Engineering and Advanced Robotics Centre, National University of Singapore, Singapore. · Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, 138602, Singapore.

  3. Cable-driven Continuum Robotics: Proprioception via Proximal-integrated Force Sensing

    Mar 8, 2026Gang Zhang, Junyan Yan, Jibiao Chen +1Contact Force EstimationContinuum Robot Shape Estimation

    Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering and T Stone Robotics Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong · Curve Robotics Limited, Hong Kong · Shun Hing Institute of Advanced Engineering and Multi-Scale Medical Robotics Center, Hong Kong

  4. Soft Rigid Hybrid Gripper with Inflatable Silicone Pockets for Tunable Frictional Grasping

    Mar 7, 2026Hoang Hiep Ly, Cong-Nhat Nguyen, Doan-Quang Tran +6Robotic GraspingRobotic Hand Design

  5. VSL-Skin: Individually Addressable Phase-Change Voxel Skin for Variable-Stiffness and Virtual Joints Bridging Soft and Rigid Robots

    Mar 7, 2026Zihan Oliver Zeng, Jiajun An, Preston Luk +1RoboticsSoft Robotics

    School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. · Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. · School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.

  6. A Unified Low-Dimensional Design Embedding for Joint Optimization of Shape, Material, and Actuation in Soft Robots

    Mar 6, 2026Vittorio Candiello, Manuel Mekkattu, Mike Y. Michelis +1Soft RoboticsRobot Morphology-Control Co-Design

    Soft Robotics Lab, D-MAVT, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. · ETH AI Center, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

  7. Control Lyapunov Functions for Underactuated Soft Robots

    Mar 5, 2026Huy Pham, Zach J. PattersonRobotic ControlSoft Robotics

    Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University

  8. Observer Design for Augmented Reality-based Teleoperation of Soft Robots

    Mar 5, 2026Jorge Francisco García-Samartín, Iago López Pérez, Emirhan Yolcu +2Robot TeleoperationSoft Robotics

    Centro de Automática y Robótica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, c/ José Gutiérrez Abascal, nº 2, 28006, Madrid, España. · Middle East Technical University, Dumlupinar Blv No 1, 06800 Cankaya, Ankara, Türkiye.

  9. Data-Driven Control of a Magnetically Actuated Fish-Like Robot

    Mar 5, 2026Akiyuki Koyama, Hiroaki KawashimaRobotic ControlUnderwater Robotics

    Graduate School of Information Science, University of Hyogo, Japan

  10. A Soft Robotic Demonstration in the Stratosphere

    Mar 4, 2026Codrin Tugui, Tirth Thakar, Anatol Gogoj +5Soft RoboticsMaterials Science

    University of Connecticut, School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering, Storrs, Connecticut USA · Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry Petru Poni; Iași, Romania · University of Toronto, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

  11. Modeling and Control of a Pneumatic Soft Robotic Catheter Using Neural Koopman Operators

    Mar 4, 2026Yiyao Yue, Noah Barnes, Lingyun Di +4Robotic Endovascular InterventionContinuum Robot Control

    Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. · Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.

  12. Characterization and Correlation of Robotic Snake Scale Friction and Locomotion Speed

    Mar 4, 2026Umit Sen, Andri Mahegan, Gina OlsonRobot LocomotionSoft Robotics

    Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.

  13. Soft Semi-active Back Support Device with Adaptive Force Profiles using Variable-elastic Actuation and Weight Feedback

    Mar 4, 2026Rohan Khatavkar, The Bach Nguyen, Inseung Kang +2Assistive RoboticsSoft Robotics

    Arizona State University · Carnegie Mellon University

  14. Passive Phase-Oriented Impedance Shaping for Rapid Acceleration in Soft Robotic Swimmers

    Mar 3, 2026Qimin Feng, Orion A. Roberts, Qiang ZhongRobot LocomotionUnderwater Robotics

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.

  15. Instant and Reversible Adhesive-free Bonding Between Silicones and Glossy Papers for Soft Robotics

    Mar 3, 2026Takumi Shibuya, Kazuya Murakami, Akitsu Shigetou +1Materials ScienceSoft Robotics

    Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, The University of Electro-communications, 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan. · Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.

  16. A Novel Modular Cable-Driven Soft Robotic Arm with Multi-Segment Reconfigurability

    Mar 2, 2026Moeen Ul Islam, Cheng Ouyang, Xinda Qi +3Soft RoboticsModular Robotics

    Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University, MS, USA · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, MI, USA · Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas, Texas A&M University, TX, USA

  17. A Deployable Bio-inspired Compliant Leg Design for Enhanced Leaping in Quadruped Robots

    Mar 1, 2026Yiyang Chen, Yuxin Liu, Jinzheng Zhou +4Bioinspired RoboticsRobotics

    Department of Mechatronics and Robotics, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China. · Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, United States.

  18. TMR-VLA:Vision-Language-Action Model for Magnetic Motion Control of Tri-leg Silicone-based Soft Robot

    Feb 28, 2026Ruijie Tang, Chi Kit Ng, Kaixuan Wu +5Language-Conditioned Robot ControlSoft Robotics

  19. Evaluating Accuracy of Vine Robot Shape Sensing with Distributed Inertial Measurement Units

    Feb 27, 2026Alexis E. Laudenslager, Antonio Alvarez Valdivia, Nathaniel Hanson +1Continuum Robot Shape EstimationRobot State Estimation

    Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. · Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, Massachusetts, USA

  20. Geometry-based pneumatic actuators for soft robotics

    Feb 27, 2026Rui Chen, Daniele Leonardis, Domenico Chiaradia +1Soft Pneumatic ActuatorsPneumatic Actuation

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

  21. Tilt-X: Enabling Compliant Aerial Manipulation through a Tiltable-Extensible Continuum Manipulator

    Feb 27, 2026Anuraj Uthayasooriyan, Krishna Manaswi Digumarti, Jack Breward +3Aerial ManipulationAerial Robotics

    QUT Centre for Robotics, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD Australia 4000 · School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD Australia 4000 · REF,Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD Australia 4000

  22. Printed helicoids with embedded air channels make sensorized segments for soft continuum robots

    Feb 26, 2026Annan Zhang, Hanna Matusik, Miguel Flores-Acton +3Soft RoboticsMaterials Science

    All authors are with the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

  23. Simple Models, Real Swimming: Digital Twins for Tendon-Driven Underwater Robots

    Feb 26, 2026Mike Y. Michelis, Nana Obayashi, Josie Hughes +1Underwater RoboticsRobotics Simulation

    Soft Robotics Lab and ETH AI Center, ETH Zurich, Switzerland · Prema Lab, New York University, USA · CREATE Lab, EPFL, Switzerland

  24. Unified Complementarity-Based Contact Modeling and Planning for Soft Robots

    Feb 24, 2026Milad Azizkhani, Yue ChenSoft RoboticsContact-Rich Robotic Manipulation

    Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA · Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA · Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (Georgia Tech and Emory University), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

  25. Surface-based Manipulation Using Tunable Compliant Porous-Elastic Soft Sensing

    Feb 24, 2026Gayatri Indukumar, Muhammad Awais, Diana Cafiso +2Robotic ManipulationSoft Robotics

    Soft BioRobotics Perception Group at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163, Genova, Italy · University of Genoa, 16126, Genova, Italy · Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pontedera, 56025, Italy +1

  26. A Robotic Testing Platform for Pipelined Discovery of Resilient Soft Actuators

    Feb 24, 2026Ang Li, Alexander Yin, Alexander White +6Soft RoboticsAutonomous Experimentation

    Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G8 Canada · Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269 U.S.A. · School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269 U.S.A. +2

  27. Hydrodynamic Performance Enhancement of Unmanned Underwater Gliders with Soft Robotic Morphing Wings for Agility Improvement

    Feb 23, 2026A. Giordano, G. De Meurichy, V. Telazzi +6Underwater RoboticsSoft Robotics

    Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics, Empa, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland. · Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ London, United Kingdom. · Laboratory for Computational Engineering, Empa, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland. +2

  28. TactiVerse: Generalizing Multi-Point Tactile Sensing in Soft Robotics Using Single-Point Data

    Feb 23, 2026Junhui Lee, Hyosung Kim, Saekwang NamTactile SensingSoft Robotics

    Graduate School of Data Science at Kyungpook National University, 41566 Daegu, Republic of Korea · Major in Data Science Convergence

  29. 3D Shape Control of Extensible Multi-Section Soft Continuum Robots via Visual Servoing

    Feb 22, 2026Abhinav Gandhi, Shou-Shan Chiang, Cagdas D. Onal +1Continuum Robot ControlVision-Based Robot Control

    Robotics Engineering Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute 100 Institute Rd, Worcester, MA 01609, USA

  30. Robotic Fruits with Tunable Stiffness and Sensing: Towards a Methodology for Developing Realistic Physical Twins of Fruits

    Feb 20, 2026Saitarun Nadipineni, Keshav Pandiyan, Kaspar Althoefer +2Soft RoboticsAgricultural Robotics

    School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Rd, Bethnal Green, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom. · Department of Robotics, Ritsumeikan University, Japan