A review of recent advancements in soft and flexible robots for medical applications

Background Soft and flexible robots for medical applications are needed to change their flexibility over a wide range to perform tasks adequately. The mechanism and theory of flexibility has been a scientific issue and is of interest to the community. Methods Recent advancements of bionics, flexible...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. e2096 - n/a
Main Authors: Zhang, Yongde, Lu, Mingyue
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.06.2020
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:
Actuation
Algorithms
Bionics
Control algorithms
Flexibility
flexible actuation
Robots
sensing and intelligent control algorithm
soft and flexible robots
Stiffness
tunable stiffness
flexible actuation
sensing and intelligent control algorithm
bionics
tunable stiffness
soft and flexible robots
ISSN:1478-5951, 1478-596X, 1478-596X
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Background Soft and flexible robots for medical applications are needed to change their flexibility over a wide range to perform tasks adequately. The mechanism and theory of flexibility has been a scientific issue and is of interest to the community. Methods Recent advancements of bionics, flexible actuation, sensing, and intelligent control algorithms as well as tunable stiffness have been referenced when soft and flexible robots are developed. The benefits and limitations of these relevant studies and how they affect the flexibility are discussed, and possible research directions are explored. Results The bionic materials and structures that demonstrate the potential capabilities of the soft medical robot flexibility are the fundamental guarantee for clinical medical applications. Flexible actuation that used to provide power, intelligent control algorithms which are the exact executors, and the wide range stiffness of the soft materials are the three important influence factors for soft medical robots. Conclusion Some reasonable suggestions and possible solutions for soft and flexible medical robots are proposed, including novel materials, flexible actuation concepts with a built‐in source of energy or power, programmable flexibility, and adjustable stiffness.
Bibliography:Funding information
Key Projects of Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province of China, Grant/Award Number: ZD2018013; National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number: 51675142; Reserve Leader Funding Project of Leading Talent Echelon of Heilongjiang Province of China, Grant/Award Number: 2501050628
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ISSN:1478-5951
1478-596X
1478-596X
DOI:10.1002/rcs.2096