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The combustion actuation method opens a unique pathway for high-performance soft robots, allowing for high accelerations in multifunctional applications. Along with multifunctionality come great challenges in effective robot structure design, accurate control and prediction of combustion-actuated motions, and practical implementation of various applications. However, research in this nascent field remains fragmented, lacking central guiding principles. To systematize these works, this review article summarizes state-of-the-art technologies in combustion-actuated soft robots, addressing three key questions: How to design a combustion-enabled soft robot? How to predict its movements and control it? and How to practically apply it.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/soro.2023.0168 | DOI Listing |
Sci Adv
September 2025
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, Singapore.
Embodied intelligence in soft robotics offers unprecedented capabilities for operating in uncertain, confined, and fragile environments that challenge conventional technologies. However, achieving true embodied intelligence-which requires continuous environmental sensing, real-time control, and autonomous decision-making-faces challenges in energy management and system integration. We developed deformation-resilient flexible batteries with enhanced performance under magnetic fields inherently present in magnetically actuated soft robots, with capacity retention after 200 cycles improved from 31.
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September 2025
School of Biomedical Engineering, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.
Developing intelligent robots with integrated sensing capabilities is critical for advanced manufacturing, medical robots, and embodied intelligence. Existing robotic sensing technologies are limited to recording of acceleration, driving torque, pressure feedback, and so on. Expanding and integrating with the multimodal sensors to mimic and even surpass the human feeling is substantially underdeveloped.
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September 2025
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Endotracheal intubation is a critical medical procedure for protecting a patient's airway. Current intubation technology requires extensive anatomical knowledge, training, technical skill, and a clear view of the glottic opening. However, all of these may be limited during emergency care for trauma and cardiac arrest outside the hospital, where first-pass failure is nearly 35%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoft Robot
September 2025
The School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
Soft robotic systems are promising for diverse space applications due to their embedded compliance, promising locomotion methods, and efficient use of mass and volume. Space environments are harsher and more varied than those on Earth; extreme temperature, pressure, and radiation may impact the performance and robustness of soft robots. Cryogenic temperatures on celestial bodies such as the Moon or Europa pose significant challenges to the flexibility and actuation performance of conventional soft systems.
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September 2025
Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy.
Animal diaphragm-lung systems are soft organs that generate a controllable vacuum. Elephants, as rare land animals, can manipulate all three states of matter using their lung-generated vacuum. In soft robotics, however, current vacuum generation relies on rigid components, and no single soft device effectively handles all states of matter.
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