Jellyfish-inspired robots offer a compliant and efficient approach to underwater locomotion, but achieving large deformation together with repeatable actuation and closed-loop control remains challenging. In this work, we present a tendon-driven robotic jellyfish with constrained soft actuation. Each actuator combines a flexible substrate with discrete constraints, enabling bending up to \(150^\circ\) with an approximately linear tendon displacement-bending relationship. Eight actuators driven by four servos allow the robot to perform stable swimming, attitude adjustment, and self-righting. Based on the linear actuation, a reinforcement-learning controller is further developed, enabling closed-loop depth regulation in both simulation and physical experiments. These results show that mechanical constraints can improve the controllability of soft actuation while preserving compliant jellyfish-like motion, providing a route toward manoeuvrable and autonomous jellyfish robots.
Soft robots excel at safe and adaptive interaction but are often constrained by limited load capacity and manipulation precision. Antagonistic soft actuators offer a promising route to address these challenges by coupling actuation with variable stiffness, inspired by biological systems such as elephant trunks and octo...
Jie Pan, Tian-Yu Chen, Jun-Wei Li et al.· Science Advances· 0 citations
While soft robots leverage compliant materials to offer infinite degrees of freedom (DOFs), achieving dexterous motions usually requires numerous actuators, making the robot bulky, complex to assemble, and discontinuously segmented. Here, inspired by the octopus neuromuscular junctions (NMJs), we present similar wire b...
Wen-Ci Xin, Zhi-Qiang Tang, Pei-Yi Wang et al.· Science Advances· 0 citations
Recent research has reported the impressive adaptability of bio-inspired soft robots in executing complex movements and traversing diverse terrains. However, achieving navigation for these robots remains challenging when operating in unknown environments with solely preprogrammed locomotion strategies. Inspired by the...
Jun-Feng Li, Zheng-Xing Wu, Jun-Wei Ding et al.· IEEE Robotics and Automation...· 0 citations
Soft robotic arms, which are most commonly constructed from fluid-driven actuators, have demonstrated a high degree of compliance and the ability to move in simple and complex ways, from single bends to whole-arm gripping to drawer opening. However, their practical applications have been constrained by limited load-bea...
Yu-Chen Kang, Gina Olson· IEEE Robotics and Automation...· 0 citations
. Pneumatic soft grippers have attracted considerable attention because their intrinsic compliance enables the safe manipulation of fragile and irregularly shaped objects. However, their practical performance remains constrained by challenges in structural design, proprioceptive and tactile perception, and closed-loop...
De-Qiu Kong, Xuan-Ming Zhang· Proceedings of the 3rd Inter...· 0 citations
Complex, three-dimensional (3D) motions typically require actuator arrays and complex control architectures. Here, we present a feather star–inspired soft robotic swimmer that uses only two pneumatic inputs to produce three distinct and switchable swimming modes: jellyfish-like pulsation, fishlike propulsion, and rotor...
