Soft Robotics: Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly (Adv. Funct. Mater. 15/2014)

Abstract

Four separate soft robotic fingers progressively curl to play notes on a keyboard. The finger-like actuators are made of a silicone elastomer molded from 3D printed parts by G. M. Whitesides and co-workers. On page 2163, these soft fingers are shown to be capable of bending fully in less than 50 ms, actuating over 1 million cycles, and bending along different paths based on their rate of pressurization.