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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 18, 2025

Fabrication of Carbon-Based Ionic Electromechanically Active Soft Actuators
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Reprogrammable soft actuation and shape-shifting via tensile jamming.

Bilige Yang1, Robert Baines1, Dylan Shah1

  • 1School of Engineering & Applied Science, Yale University, 10 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.

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|October 1, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Soft robots can now adapt to new tasks using novel jamming fibers that rapidly switch stiffness. This technology enables programmable shape-shifting for robots interacting with complex environments.

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Area of Science:

  • Robotics
  • Materials Science
  • Mechanical Engineering

Background:

  • Soft robots utilize shape-shifting for motor adaptation, often relying on strain limiters for deformation.
  • Traditional strain limiters are static, limiting adaptability to changing task demands.
  • Existing reprogrammable deformation technologies face challenges like slow actuation or increased bending stiffness.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To introduce a novel jamming fiber technology for on-demand, programmable shape-shifting in soft robots.
  • To overcome limitations of fixed strain limiters and current variable stiffness materials.
  • To enable enhanced adaptability in soft robotic systems.

Main Methods:

  • Development of fibers that switch tensile stiffness through jamming of segmented elastic fibrils.
  • Characterization of stiffness changes: >20x increase in tensile stiffness in <0.1s, with only a 2x increase in bending stiffness.
  • Integration of jamming fibers with an inflating soft body to locally limit surface strains.

Main Results:

  • The jamming fibers demonstrate rapid and significant changes in tensile stiffness while maintaining low bending stiffness.
  • Programmable deformations are achieved by locally controlling surface strains on an inflating soft body.
  • The technology is scalable for broader applications in soft robotics.

Conclusions:

  • The proposed jamming fiber technology offers a scalable solution for adaptive shape-shifting in soft robots.
  • This innovation enhances the adaptability of soft robots for interaction with unstructured environments.
  • This work paves the way for next-generation soft robots with dynamic and programmable behaviors.