Design and Implementation of Soft Robotic Manipulators

This book investigates the soft robotic manipulators in detail, including a systematic review of soft manipulators, integrated designs of structure and actuation, modeling and implementation of soft manipulators, structural optimizations, and experimental validations. The soft robotic manipulator, which has advantages of low-weight, flexibility, safe physical interaction, shows a wide prospect in both industry and family applications. In the Web of Science database, the search terms or search scopes including “soft manipulator”, “soft robot arm” and “soft arm” show a booming trend. Usually, the soft manipulator is a kind of special manipulator that uses soft material or flexible structure to perform manipulation tasks through continuous motion control. This book provides a comprehensive presentation from design, simulation to experiment validations of soft manipulators, revealing a deep insight for fine control and suitable application. This book is intended for graduate students, researchers and engineers interested in robotics, intelligent control, soft materials, mechanism design, Bionics, etc.