Soft Active Materials for Actuation, Sensing, and Electronics

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Future generations of robots, electronics, and assistive medical devices will include systems that are soft and elastically deformable, allowing them to adapt their morphology in unstructured environments. This will require soft active materials for actuation, circuitry, and sensing of deformation and contact pressure. The emerging field of soft robotics utilizes these soft active materials to mimic the inherent compliance of natural soft-bodied systems. As the elasticity of robot components increases, the challenges for functionality revert to basic questions of fabrication, materials, and design - whereas such aspects are far more developed for traditional rigid-bodied systems. This thesis will highlight preliminary materials and designs that address the need for soft actuators and sensors, as well as emerging fabrication techniques for manufacturing stretchable circuits and devices based on liquid-embedded elastomers.