Soft Robotics Sensing Technology: Progress and Challenges from Proprioception to Environmental Interaction Perception

Abstract

The compliance and adaptability of soft robots promise to have a significant impact across the healthcare, disaster-relief and human- computer-interaction domains. Nonlinear nature and unrestricted degrees of freedom of soft materials, however, are very challenging to state perception and accurate control. Sensing technology as the middle ground between physical interaction and intelligent decision-making is one of the keys to autonomy of soft robots. This paper is a systematic review of the research advances of sensing technology to soft robots to analyze the present position of important technologies in this area: morphological perception, internal state monitoring, tactile perception, and multimodal fusion under two dimensions: proprioception and environmental interaction. Accordingly, it addresses the existing fundamental dilemmas such as the conflict between the accuracy of sensing and compliance, the multimodal data fusing, and system integration and persistence. Lastly, it also anticipates the future trends that include material innovation, empowering intelligent algorithms, and integrating multidisciplinary approaches.