Soft Robots: Functionality via Instabilities

Soft robots made of compliant materials have drawn significant attention over the past few years because of their ability to produce complex and adaptive motions through nonlinear deformation. The simplicity of their design, ease of fabrication and low cost sparked the emergence of soft robots capable of walking, crawling, camouflaging and assisting humans in grasping. In this talk, I will show that the response of these soft machines can be further enhanced by embracing instabilities. While instabilities have traditionally been avoided as they often represent mechanical failure, here we exploit them to amplify the response of soft actuators, facilitate their motion and trigger instantaneous and significant changes in shape.