Soft Robotics. Bio-inspired Antagonistic Stiffening

Soft robotic structures might play a major role in the 4th industrial revolution. Researchers have demonstrated advantages of soft robotics over traditional robots made of rigid links and joints in several application areas including manufacturing, healthcare, and surgical interventions. However, soft robots have limited ability to exert larger forces and change their stiffness on demand over a wide range. Stiffness can be achieved as a result of the equilibrium of an active and a passive reaction force or of two active forces antagonistically collaborating. This paper presents a novel design paradigm for a fabric-based Variable Stiffness System including potential applications.