New soft robotic technology ‘can offer safer and more natural movement’

Scientists are developing a new type of soft robotic technology with a potentially broad range of applications.

An ongoing project at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne's Reconfigurable Robotics Lab is working to create soft robots powered by muscle-like actuators made of elastomers such as silicon and rubber, which are controlled by changing the air pressure in specially-designed soft balloons that make up the robot's body.

The team has just developed a predictive model that can be used to carefully control the mechanical behaviour of the various modules, allowing them to gain a better understanding of how the elastomers will deform and move.

Soft robotics of this kind can be used on the human body in order to help people move, with applications including patient rehabilitation, handling fragile objects, biomimetic systems and home care.

They could also be used to produce adaptable robots capable of navigating cramped, hostile environments.

Jamie Paik, director of the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab, said: "They are made of inexpensive materials, and so they could easily be produced on a large scale. This will open new doors in the field of robotics."

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