A new control method lets soft robots bend into precise shapes in real time with multiple segments.

Soft robotic arms bend continuously to move safely around obstacles. In tight spaces, guiding just the arm's tip is not enough; you must control the shape of the entire body. However, steering every segment is very difficult because soft arms bend in complex, nonlinear ways. Gravity, inertia, and pulling between connected parts make control even harder as more segments are added. Older methods look only at overall shape errors across the whole room. To fix this, researchers built a new real-time controller. Their system tracks both the robot's overall shape and the local bending of individual segments. In computer tests, the method handled arms with up to 10 independently actuated segments. In real-world physical tests, it guided 3- and 5-segment arms reaching tip speeds up to 0.6 m/s. Without retraining, it handled distal payloads up to 400 g, recovered from a 7 N sideways disturbance, and succeeded in a confined-space demonstration.

Why it matters

This enables soft robots to safely interact in confined spaces like disaster sites or during surgeries. People using these robots can perform tasks requiring bending around obstacles without damage.

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