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.

Dr. Xiang ZHANG received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), Changsha, China, in 2009 and 2015. He studied as a visiting doctoral student at University of Toronto, Canada, in 2014. Currently, he is an associate professor in Defense Innovation Institute of Academy of Military Sciences, and selected as National High-level Young Talent. His current research focuses on design, dynamics and control of advanced robot. His current research interests include intelligent control and manipulation of advanced bionic robots, design, dynamics and control of soft robots.

Dr. Kangjia FU received his B.E. degree in Aircraft Design and Engineering from Beihang University, Beijing, China, in 2014, and received the Ph.D. degree in Mechanics from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2019. He studied as a visiting scholar at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2018. Currently, he is an associate professor in Defense Innovation Institute of Academy of Military Sciences. Dr. Fu’s research interest focuses on deployable structures, origami structures, and soft robots. These research results have been published in Science Advances, Advanced Functional Materials, and AIAA Journal.

Dr. Xuesong WU received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), Changsha, China, in 2014 and 2022. He studied as a visiting doctoral student at University of Alberta, Canada, in 2018. Since July 2022, he has been an assistant professor in Defense Innovation Institute of Academy of Military Sciences. He focuses on the research of robotic systems, including computer vision, motion control and artificial intelligence. Dr. Wu has published over 20 academic papers and was awarded the IEEE Sensors Journal Best Paper in 2022.

Dr. Hongwei LIU received his bachelor's degree from the School of Aerospace at Tsinghua University in 2009 and Ph.D. degree from National University of Defense Technology in 2015. Currently, he works in Defense Innovation Institute of Academy of Military Sciences.Dr. Liu mainly focuses on robotic process automation and space robot technology research. Dr. Liu has obtained over 20 national invention patent authorizations, published over 30 academic papers, and published 3 academic books. Dr. Liu is a member of the Chinese Society for Command and Control and the Chinese Society for Automation.