Page 21 - Read Online

Page 18 of 26 Chen et al. Soft Sci. 2026, 6, 3

Despite significant progress, critical barriers remain for clinical translation, such as long-term materials
biostability and safety, real-time closed-loop control methods, and scalable reproducible manufacturing
procedures. Overcoming these challenges requires interdisciplinary innovation across materials science,
robotics, bioengineering, and regulatory science.

DECLARATIONS
Authors’ contributions
Designed and organized the project: Chen, Z.; Yang, S.; Law, J.; Du, X.; Sun, Y.
Manuscript writing: Chen, Z.; Yang, S.
Manuscript supervision: Law, J.; Du, X.; Sun, Y.
All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

Availability of data and materials
Not applicable.

Financial support and sponsorship
This research is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.
52505004 and 62588301) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
[DUT24RC(3)118 to Law, J.; DUT25RC(3)040 to Du, X.].

Conflicts of interest
All authors declared that there are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.

Consent for publication
Not applicable.

Copyright
© The Author(s) 2026.

REFERENCES

1. Kim, S.; Laschi, C.; Trimmer, B. Soft robotics: a bioinspired evolution in robotics. Trends. Biotechnol. 2013, 31, 287-94. DOI PubMed
2. Yang, G. Z.; Fischer, P.; Nelson, B. New materials for next-generation robots. Sci. Robot. 2017, 2. DOI PubMed
3. Ranzani, T.; Russo, S.; Bartlett, N. W.; Wehner, M.; Wood, R. J. Increasing the dimensionality of soft microstructures through injection-
induced self-folding. Adv. Mater. 2018, 30, e1802739. DOI
4. Shen, Z.; Chen, F.; Zhu, X.; Yong, K. T.; Gu, G. Stimuli-responsive functional materials for soft robotics. J. Mater. Chem. B. 2020. DOI
PubMed
5. Lou, H.; Wang, Y.; Sheng, Y.; et al. Water-induced shape-locking magnetic robots. Adv. Sci. (Weinh). 2024, 11, e2405021. DOI PubMed
PMC
6. Rus, D.; Tolley, M. T. Design, fabrication and control of soft robots. Nature 2015, 521, 467-75. DOI PubMed
7. Laschi, C.; Mazzolai, B.; Cianchetti, M. Soft robotics: Technologies and systems pushing the boundaries of robot abilities. Sci. Robot.
2016, 1. DOI PubMed
8. Sitti, M. Miniature soft robots - road to the clinic. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2018, 3, 74-5. DOI
9. Kim, Y.; Zhao, X. Magnetic soft materials and robots. Chem. Rev. 2022, 122, 5317-64. DOI PubMed PMC
10. Tang, C.; Du, B.; Jiang, S.; et al. A pipeline inspection robot for navigating tubular environments in the sub-centimeter scale. Sci. Robot.
2022, 7, eabm8597. DOI PubMed
11. Cianchetti, M.; Laschi, C.; Menciassi, A.; Dario, P. Biomedical applications of soft robotics. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2018, 3, 143-53. DOI
12. Wang, T.; Wu, Y.; Yildiz, E.; Kanyas, S.; Sitti, M. Clinical translation of wireless soft robotic medical devices. Nat. Rev. Bioeng. 2024,
2, 470-85. DOI
13. Law, J.; Chen, H.; Wang, Y.; Yu, J.; Sun, Y. Gravity-resisting colloidal collectives. Sci. Adv. 2022, 8, eade3161. DOI PubMed PMC