Yarn-grouping weaving soft robotics with directional inflation, bilateral bending, and self-sensing for healthcare

Pneumatic soft robotics are highly desirable for interacting with humans and navigating uncertain environments. However, it remains a great challenge to simultaneously achieve high actuation efficiency, programmable deformations, real-time feedback, and robustness. Herein, a textile engineering approach is harnessed to integrate multifunctionality into woven actuators by tailoring yarn groupings using all-in-one industrial weaving technologies. The unique nearly zero Poisson’s ratio inflatable deformation of the actuators contributes to a large bending strain (2,250° m⁻¹), a high output force (30 N MPa⁻¹), and robust mechanical performance. Bilateral bending actuators with negative, zero, and positive curvatures are realized by hierarchical shape transformations of the woven layers. The embedded sensing yarns provide facile and effective methods to proprioceptively sense actuation deformation without compromising actuation performance. Moreover, this manufacturing method is cost efficient and highly scalable, which expands practical applications of soft actuators in healthcare and offers a new perspective on the structure design of customized soft actuators.