Soft robots, soft actuators, and methods for making the same

Abstract

A material-mapped actuator useful as, or as part of, a soft robot along with automated methods of design and manufacture. The actuator exhibits mechanical properties that spatially vary along a coordinate system of the actuator. The actuator body has an initial shape with a corresponding initial map of mechanical attributes consisting of locally-varying stiffness at each point in a volume of the actuator body. The actuator is configured to change to a different shape or distribution of mechanical properties upon being activated by an actuation medium. The map of mechanical attributes influences and determines the new shape or distribution. The material-mapped actuator can incorporate a spatially-varying distribution of mechanical properties that dictates multiple desired shapes as the actuation medium is applied, including an actuation sequence in which the actuator transitions from a first shape to a desired intermediate shape(s), and from the intermediate shape to a desired final shape.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.