Leveraging Internal Viscous Flow to Extend the Capabilities of Beam-Shaped Soft Robotic Actuators.

Elastic deformation of beam-shaped structures due to embedded fluidic networks (EFNs) is mainly studied in the context of soft actuators and soft robotic applications. Currently, the effects of viscosity are not examined in such configurations. In this work, we introduce an internal viscous flow and present the extended range of actuation modes enabled by viscosity.