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Chen et al. Soft Sci. 2026, 6, 9 Page 25 of 36

conventional grippers that continuously consume energy to maintain a grasp, a bistable soft gripper was
developed utilizing the LM solenoid coil, which requires energy only during the actuation of gripping or
releasing [Figure 12C] [128] . Once engaged, the gripper can securely hold an object by leveraging bistability,
without the need for continuous power consumption.

In addition to soft grippers, a series of LM composite-based magnetic soft robots with excellent locomotion
performance was also developed for applications such as infrastructure inspection and environmental
exploration. We demonstrated the multi-mode locomotion of the soft robot fabricated from
reprogrammable MLM composite [Figure 13A] . With three distinguished magnetization profiles, the robot
[79]
achieved three corresponding locomotion modes, including flipping, rolling, and crawling upon the dynamic
magnetic field. Moreover, Maurin et al. developed the robots constructed from a liquid crystal
elastomer-liquid metal (LCE-LM) composite and actuated by high-frequency AMFs, which achieved
crawling and on-ground omnidirectional motion [Figure 13B] . Based on this structure, an untethered
[57]
amphibious soft robot was further demonstrated, capable of multimodal locomotion across terrestrial and
aquatic environments . Two distinct mechanisms enable diverse motion: (i) reversible thermal bending via
[101]
ultrafast induction heating, producing crawling, flipping, and surfacing behaviors; and (ii) Lorentz force
generated in the conductive LM layer, enabling efficient on-water swimming.

LM coil-based electromagnetic soft robots also attract much attention owing to their precisely controllable
electrical input, enabling programmable and reliable actuation. For example, a crawling soft robot was
designed by connecting three bistable electromagnetic actuators and a tail in series [Figure 13C] [128] . The
crawling locomotion is achieved through sequential expansion/contraction cycles of the bistable actuators
coupled with asymmetric friction control, enabling directional movement at 6 mm·s . The authors developed
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a swimming robot by attaching two flexible plastic sheets to two sides of a bistable electromagnetic actuator.
The swimming robot achieved 5.75 mm·s propulsion underwater through vibration-driven tail deflection.
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In addition, Li et al. developed a high-speed rotary robot composed of 3D LM coils encapsulated in PDMS
with position-sensing ability [Figure 13D] . The robot employs six magnetically actuated units in a wheel
[125]
configuration with a three-phase sinusoidal current drive, achieving precise rotational control while
integrating real-time position/velocity feedback via eddy-current inductance sensing and slip-ring wire
management.

The single electromagnetic soft robot with multiple modes of locomotion has been developed by refining
structural design and programming electrical current manipulation. An ultrafast soft electromagnetic robot
was created utilizing the curved elastomeric bilayers with embedded LM coils, achieving multimodal
locomotion including walking, running, swimming, and jumping [Figure 13E] [123] . The resonant-driven
design enables record speeds of 70 body length (BL)·s for running and 4.8 BL·s for swimming, while
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integrated 3D-printed sawtooth or L-shaped feet provide substrate-adaptive motion control across diverse
terrains. Moreover, a self-vectoring electromagnetic soft robot was presented that enabled instant
reprogramming of electromagnetic vectors, achieving high-dimensional control through synchronous
current manipulation of modular sub-domains [Figure 13F] [124] . Rolling locomotion was the fundamental
capability for a single actuator module, which can achieve continuous omnidirectional rotation at ~27 rad·s .
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Soft robots composed of two actuator modules exhibited both crawling and flipping locomotion, with the
gait switch achieved through foldable shape morphing. The same robotic design also enabled paddling
locomotion on the water surface and flapping motion underwater.

Soft robots based on LM composites have also shown promising applications in biomedical engineering.
For example, Shen et al. developed a surgical capsule by coating the MLM droplets with a
hydrogel [Figure 14A] [129] . The capsule exhibited outstanding resilience under cyclic compression,

withstanding strains of up to 85%. Meanwhile, the capsules demonstrate large deformation capacity,
dexterous locomotion, and wireless heating. The capsule has been shown to enable remote thermal ablation