Soft Robotics aims at providing state of art on research and potential approaches of soft robotics. It particularly challenges the traditional thinking of engineers, as the confluence of technologies, ranging from new materials, sensors, actuators and production techniques to new design tools, will make it possible to create new systems whose structures are almost completely made of soft materials, which bring about entirely new functions and behaviors, similar in many ways to natural systems. This is a huge research topic, “hot” and with a huge potential due to new possibilities offered by these systems to cope with problems that cannot be addressed by robots built from rigid bodies.

• Chemical engineering can take part to the emerging field of soft robotics
• Soft and polymer materials can be used in sensing applications
• Soft robotics can solve many industrial issues and challenges