Towards Advanced Intelligent and Perceptive Soft Grippers

Over the last decade, soft robots have expanded the boundaries of robotic horizons, showing strong potential in mimicking the true nature of living organisms as well as addressing real‐world problems that conventional rigid‐bodied robots have not achieved. At the heart of these successes are innovative and creative solutions in designing soft gripper bodies and seamlessly integrating actuated systems with hierarchical sensing. Among the possible scenarios that soft robots could aim at, versatile and dexterous grasping and manipulation have been intensively studied, leading researchers, engineers, and scientists to explore multidisciplinary solutions, from material science, mechanical and electrical engineering, and computer science. Herein, achieving both desired mechanical performances (i.e. highly compliant yet strength), and versatile functionality in grasping remain dreaming tasks that many of roboticists desire. In parallel, given that multimodal grasping via morphological computation—where actuation, sensing, and control are well distributed along the soft body—has been conceived as emerging research topics, this comprehensive study aims to provide a comparative analysis of design principles, actuated systems, and sensing strategies, highlighting deep insights and exploring feasible solutions to break through bottlenecks and remaining open challenges in creating totally new intelligent soft machines that can actively interact with environment.