Handbook on Soft Robotics

This book explains how to design and control a soft robot in understandable language. In addition, it provides a comprehensive coverage of the essential theory and techniques used in soft robotics that can be used by graduate students in soft robotics. The book covers several key areas in soft robots, ranging from design and fabrication to modelling and control. It also includes many case studies and examples. The book clearly explains mathematical concepts and uses illustrative explanation to help engineers and junior graduate students understand the physical meaning of the key concepts and approaches in soft robotics. 

Reading this book gives professional engineers and students a sound knowledge of soft robotics that they can take to their careers and research.

1.  Introduction.- 2. Bioinspiration.- 3. Soft robots as a platform to understand embodied intelligence.- 4. Modeling Soft Robots.- 5.Mechanical compliance: from soft robot modeling theory to FEM computation.- 6. Soft hands for grasping and manipulation.- 7. Malleable Robots.- 8. Continuum soft robots with applications in the construction industry.- 9. Origami Robots.

Thrishantha Nanayakkara is a professor of robotics at Imperial. He is the director of Morphlab at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial. His main research interests are in using soft robots to test hypotheses in embodied intelligence. Prior to Imperial, he has been at Kings College London, MIT, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins University. His work has been featured in the New Scientist magazine, Harvard magazine, BBC, Sky News, and Financial Times.