Tailoring materials into kirigami robots

Kirigami, the traditional paper-cutting craft, holds immense potential for revolutionizing robotics by providing multifunctional, lightweight, and adaptable solutions. Kirigami structures, characterized by their bending-dominated deformation, offer resilience to tensile forces and facilitate shape morphing under small actuation forces. Kirigami components such as actuators, sensors, batteries, controllers, and body structures can be tailored to specific robotic applications by optimizing cut patterns. Actuators based on kirigami principles exhibit complex motions programmable through various energy sources, while kirigami sensors bridge the gap between electrical conductivity and compliance. Kirigami-integrated batteries enable energy storage directly within robot structures, enhancing flexibility and compactness. Kirigami-controlled mechanisms mimic mechanical computations, enabling advanced functionalities such as shape morphing and memory functions. Applications of kirigami-enabled robots include grasping, locomotion, and wearables, showcasing their adaptability to diverse environments and tasks. Despite promising opportunities, challenges remain in the design of cut patterns for a given function and streamlining fabrication techniques.

Weld n'Cut: Automated fabrication of inflatable fabric actuators

Lightweight, durable textile-based inflatable soft actuators are widely used in soft robotics, particularly for wearable robots in rehabilitation and in enhancing human performance in demanding jobs. Fabricating these actuators typically involves multiple steps: heat-sealable fabrics are fused with a heat press, and non-stick masking layers define internal chambers. These layers must be carefully removed post-fabrication, often making the process labor-intensive and prone to errors. To address these challenges and improve the accuracy and performance of inflatable actuators, we introduce the Weld n'Cut platform-an open-source, automated manufacturing process that combines ultrasonic welding for fusing textile layers with an oscillating knife for precise cuts, enabling the creation of complex inflatable structures. We demonstrate the machine's performance across various materials and designs with arbitrarily complex geometries.

Soft robotics towards sustainable development goals and climate actions

Soft robotics technology can aid in achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement through development of autonomous, environmentally responsible machines powered by renewable energy. By utilizing soft robotics, we can mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change on human society and the natural world through fostering adaptation, restoration, and remediation. Moreover, the implementation of soft robotics can lead to groundbreaking discoveries in material science, biology, control systems, energy efficiency, and sustainable manufacturing processes. However, to achieve these goals, we need further improvements in understanding biological principles at the basis of embodied and physical intelligence, environment-friendly materials, and energy-saving strategies to design and manufacture self-piloting and field-ready soft robots. This paper provides insights on how soft robotics can address the pressing issue of environmental sustainability. Sustainable manufacturing of soft robots at a large scale, exploring the potential of biodegradable and bioinspired materials, and integrating onboard renewable energy sources to promote autonomy and intelligence are some of the urgent challenges of this field that we discuss in this paper. Specifically, we will present field-ready soft robots that address targeted productive applications in urban farming, healthcare, land and ocean preservation, disaster remediation, and clean and affordable energy, thus supporting some of the SDGs. By embracing soft robotics as a solution, we can concretely support economic growth and sustainable industry, drive solutions for environment protection and clean energy, and improve overall health and well-being.