Soft Robots Based on Small-Strain Mechanisms

This book describes Soft robotics is considered as one of the most promising frontiers for robotic research and versatile applications. As an interdisciplinary field, soft robotics brings together material science, manufacture, mechatronics and control. This book focuses on actuation, perception, control and applications of soft robots, showing their new functions and behaviors based on unique small-strain mechanisms, to offer readers a wide guidance for interdisciplinary exploration on soft robotics. The book represents the small-strain foldable mechanisms in the first chapter to explain key theories. Methodology covering actuation, perception and control of soft robots based on small-strain mechanisms have been elaborated in Chapter 2-5 to provide new tools for design and modelling of actuators, sensors and controllers. Several excellent cases are following in Chapter 6-10 to review the recent developments on industrial, surgical and healthcare applications. This book aims to give references for students, researchers and engineers from the fields of mechanical engineering, robotics and biomedical engineering.