Recent advances in soft materials enable robots to possess safer human-machine interaction ways and adaptive motions, yet there remain substantial challenges to develop universal driving power sources that can achieve performance trade-offs between actuation, speed, portability, and reliability in untethered applications. Here, we introduce a class of fully soft electronic pumps that utilize electrical energy to pump liquid through electrons and ions migration mechanism. Soft pumps combine good portability with excellent actuation performances. We develop special functional liquids that merge unique properties of electrically actuation and self-healing function, providing a direction for self-healing fluid power systems. Appearances and pumpabilities of soft pumps could be customized to meet personalized needs of diverse robots. Combined with a homemade miniature high-voltage power converter, two different soft pumps are implanted into robotic fish and vehicle to achieve their untethered motions, illustrating broad potential of soft pumps as universal power sources in untethered soft robotics.

Existing grippers for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manipulation have persistent challenges, highlighting a need for grippers that are soft, self-adaptive, self-contained, easy to control, and lightweight. Inspired by tendril plants, we propose a class of soft grippers that are voltage driven and based on winding deformation for self-adaptive grasping. We design two types of U-shaped soft eccentric circular tube actuators (UCTAs) and propose using the liquid-gas phase-transition mechanism to actuate UCTAs. Two types of UCTAs are separately cross-arranged to construct two types of soft grippers, forming self-contained systems that can be directly driven by voltage. One gripper inspired by tendril climbers can be used for delicate grasping, and the other gripper inspired by hook climbers can be used for strong grasping. These grippers are ideal for deployment in UAVs because of their self-adaptability, ease of control, and light weight, paving the way for UAVs to achieve powerful manipulation with low positioning accuracy, no complex grasping planning, self-adaptability, and multiple environments.

Soft fluidic robots have attracted a lot of attention and have broad application prospects. However, poor fluidic power source and easy to damage have been hindering their development, while the lack of intelligent self-protection also brings inconvenience to their applications. Here, we design diversified self-protection soft fluidic robots that integrate soft electrohydrodynamic pumps, actuators, healing electrofluids, and E-skins. We develop high-performance soft electrohydrodynamic pumps, enabling high-speed actuation and large deformation of untethered soft fluidic robots. A healing electrofluid that can form a self-healed film with excellent stretchability and strong adhesion is synthesized, which can achieve rapid and large-areas-damage self-healing of soft materials. We propose multi-functional E-skins to endow robots intelligence, making robots realize a series of self-protection behaviors. Moreover, our robots allow their functionality to be enhanced by the combination of electrodes or actuators. This design strategy enables soft fluidic robots to achieve their high-speed actuation and intelligent self-protection, opening a door for soft robots with physical intelligence.

Self-contained soft electrofluidic actuators display excellent performance in portability, rapid response, and actuation.

Active mechanical metamaterials with customizable structures and deformations, active reversible deformation, dynamically controllable shape-locking performance and stretchability are highly suitable for applications in soft robotics and flexible electronics, yet it is challenging to integrate them due to their mutual conflicts. Here, we introduce a class of phase-transforming mechanical metamaterials (PMMs) that integrate the above properties. Periodically arranging basic actuating units according to the designed pattern configuration and positional relationship, PMMs can customize complex and diverse structures and deformations. Liquid–vapor phase transformation provides active reversible large deformation while a silicone matrix offers stretchability. The contained carbonyl iron powder endows PMMs with dynamically controllable shape-locking performance, thereby achieving magnetically assisted shape locking and energy storing in different working modes. We build a theoretical model and finite element simulation to guide the design process of PMMs, so as to develop a variety of PMMs with different functions suitable for different applications, such as a programmed PMM, reconfigurable antenna, soft lens, soft mechanical memory, biomimetic hand, biomimetic flytrap and self-contained soft gripper. PMMs are applicable to achieve various 2D deformations and 2D-to-3D deformations, and integrate multiple properties, including customizable structures and deformations, active reversible deformation, rapid reversible shape locking, adjustable energy storing and stretchability, which could open a new application avenue in soft robotics and flexible electronics.

Climbing robots have attracted growing attention due to their mobility on vertical and nonplanar structural surfaces. However, the development of climbing robots capable of climbing on various complex surfaces remains elusive, especially on discontinuous surfaces. In nature, Parthenocissus climbs as it grows, having growing-climbing behaviors. Inspired by Parthenocissus , we propose a growing-climbing mechanism and report a soft climbing robot, which grows microstructured biofilms to enhance adhesion, similar to Parthenocissus growing suckers and adsorbing to the wall. The robot uses shape memory alloy contraction to achieve bending, similar to Parthenocissus using gelatinous fibers contraction to achieve hinge-like bending. In addition, to not damage the site, it can be fully contracted after completing tasks. The climbing robot can climb on various complex surfaces, especially discontinuous surfaces, verifying the effectiveness of Parthenocissus ’ growing-climbing mechanism. The growing-climbing mechanism is a universal climbing robot paradigm, opening a door for complex surface climbing robots.