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.

The stress‐response strategy is one of the nature's greatest developments, enabling animals and plants to respond quickly to environmental stimuli. One example is the stress‐response strategy of the Venus flytrap, which enables such a delicate plant to perceive and prey on insects at an imperceptible speed by their soft terminal lobes. Here, inspired by this unique stress‐response strategy, a soft gripper that aims at the challenges of high‐speed dynamic grasping tasks is presented. The gripper, called high‐speed soft gripper (HSG), is based on two basic design concepts. One is a snap‐through instability that enables the HSG to sense the mechanical stimuli and actuating instantly. The other one is the spider‐inspired pneumatic‐powered control system that makes the trigger process repeatable and controllable. Utilizing the stress‐response strategy, the HSG can accomplish high‐speed sensing and grasping and handle a dynamic grasping task like catching a thrown baseball. Whereas soft machines typically exhibit slow locomotion speed and low manipulation strength for the intrinsic limitations of soft materials, the exploration of the stress‐response strategy in this study can help pave the way for designing a new generation of practical high‐speed soft robots.

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

Human finger excels at delicate and dynamic gripping tasks via coordinating soft tissues and rigid components, which is yet considerably challenging for robotic grippers. Herein, inspired by the human finger, a soft‐rigid structured gripper composed of three variable‐stiffness fingers with the antagonistic mechanism is proposed. Each finger can change its joint stiffness by selectively applying pretension to the springs so that it can exhibit different stiffness gradients to conform to the surfaces. Theoretical models are established to evaluate both the deformation and stiffness properties, and several experiments verify that it can increase the stiffness to 6.4 times after aggravating the antagonistic effect. Based on the variable stiffness, the finger performs sequential motion to conform to different curvatures, resulting in a larger contact area. Moreover, by stiffening joints, the proposed gripper can improve its grasping performance with a large grasping force while providing gentle contact. Furthermore, the gripper presents the capability of handling various objects with the optimal posture and gently grasping fragile objects like the paper ring and plasticine cylinder. Whereas this gripper can coordinate the relationship between high compliance and variable stiffness, the exploration of the gripper provides shed light on robotic design and practical application.

Fluid‐driven soft robotic systems, typically powered by bulky and rigid pumps, face significant limitations in agility and adaptability. Addressing this, various soft pumps have been developed, aiming to achieve better compatibility with soft robotics while ensuring sufficient performance. However, finding an optimal balance between flow rate, pumping pressure, efficiency, and the ability to seamlessly integrate with soft robotic structures remains challenging. Herein, a trielectrode electrostatically driven soft pump is presented, featuring a central diaphragm for active bidirectional pumping of gases and dielectric liquids. This design surpasses previous dual‐electrode soft pumps in electrostatic driving frequency, offering an improved flow rate of up to 330 mL min⁻¹ and pressure of 15.96 kPa, within a compact form measuring 5.42 cm³ in volume and weighing only 11.2 g. In addition, constructed entirely from compliant materials, this pump is fully functional under bending, compression, and torsion, enhancing its integration with soft robotics. To demonstrate its practical utility, the pump is integrated into a soft gripper, enabling the manipulation of various objects. The introduced trielectrode design enables high‐frequency electrostatic actuation, resulting in a compact, high‐performance, and deformation‐resilient soft pump, advancing highly integrated and practical soft robotics.