Recent progress on polymer-based electrically driven soft robots

Electrically driven robots have gained widespread attention in the robotics field due to their fast response, high control precision, and flexibility. Compared to rigidly structured electrically driven robots, polymer-based electrically driven soft robots offer higher degrees of freedom, adaptability, and robustness, making them highly promising for applications such as aerospace. However, the electro-responsive smart driving materials used in polymer-based electrically driven soft robots still face challenges such as low energy efficiency, insufficient driving precision, and poor stability. In terms of device design, existing actuation methods face challenges such as simplicity, limited applicability across diverse scenarios, and insufficient ability to support multimodal motion in complex environments. This review first summarizes the driving mechanisms of different types of polymer-based electrically driven soft robots from a material perspective and reviews methods for improving their driving performance. From a device perspective, the review then outlines the movement characteristics of these robots in complex environments, including crawling, walking, jumping, climbing, underwater movement, and flight, as well as the integration of driving functions and multiphysical field coupling to expand the application scenarios of soft driving. Finally, the current limitations and future research trends are identified.