Soft robotics for farm to fork: applications in agriculture &amp; farming

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Abstract

Agricultural tasks and environments range from harsh field conditions with semi-structured produce or animals, through to post-processing tasks in food-processing environments. From farm to fork, the development and application of soft robotics offers a plethora of potential uses. Robust yet compliant interactions between farm produce and machines will enable new capabilities and optimize existing processes. There is also an opportunity to explore how modeling tools used in soft robotics can be applied to improve our representation and understanding of the soft and compliant structures common in agriculture. In this review, we seek to highlight the potential for soft robotics technologies within the food system, and also the unique challenges that must be addressed when developing soft robotics systems for this problem domain. We conclude with an outlook on potential directions for meaningful and sustainable impact, and also how our outlook on both soft robotics and agriculture must evolve in order to achieve the required paradigm shift.

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Soft robotics: a bioinspired evolution in robotics.

Sangbae Kim, Cecilia Laschi, Barry Trimmer (2013)

Animals exploit soft structures to move effectively in complex natural environments. These capabilities have inspired robotic engineers to incorporate soft technologies into their designs. The goal is to endow robots with new, bioinspired capabilities that permit adaptive, flexible interactions with unpredictable environments. Here, we review emerging soft-bodied robotic systems, and in particular recent developments inspired by soft-bodied animals. Incorporating soft technologies can potentially reduce the mechanical and algorithmic complexity involved in robot design. Incorporating soft technologies will also expedite the evolution of robots that can safely interact with humans and natural environments. Finally, soft robotics technology can be combined with tissue engineering to create hybrid systems for medical applications. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.