Pneumatic coding blocks enable programmability of electronics-free fluidic soft robots.

Decision-making based on environmental cues is a crucial feature of autonomous systems. Embodying this feature in soft robots poses nontrivial challenges on both hardware and software that can undermine the simplicity and autonomy of such devices. Existing pneumatic electronics-free soft robots have so far mostly been approached by using system fluidic circuit architectures analogous to digital electronics.

A retrofit sensing strategy for soft fluidic robots.

Soft robots are intrinsically capable of adapting to different environments by changing their shape in response to interaction forces. However, sensory feedback is still required for higher level decisions. Most sensing technologies integrate separate sensing elements in soft actuators, which presents a considerable challenge for both the fabrication and robustness of soft robots.