ArticleSoft robotics2018
Laser Cutting as a Rapid Method for Fabricating Thin Soft Pneumatic Actuators and Robots.
Article in Soft robotics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Scalable design of fluidic DEMUX/MUX.Science advances · 2026Article
- Exploiting Device Deformability for Fluid and Particle Manipulation.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Review
- Vacuum-Laser Fabrication of Programmable Soft Actuators.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Dual-Chamber One-Step Molding Actuator with Straight-Curved Crease Prismatic Design for Large-Range Motions and Structural Stability.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Deployable electronics with enhanced fatigue resistance for crumpling and tension.Science advances · 2025Article
- Creating Stretchable Electronics from Dual Layer Flex-PCB for Soft Robotic Cardiac Mapping Catheters.Micromachines · 2023Article
- Soft Robotics: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis.Micromachines · 2023Review
- Branching Vine Robots for Unmapped Environments.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2022Article
- Bio-Inspired Soft Grippers Based on Impactive Gripping.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2021Review
- HASEL Artificial Muscles for a New Generation of Lifelike Robots-Recent Progress and Future Opportunities.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2021Review
- Design of a Sensitive Balloon Sensor for Safe Human-Robot Interaction.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- A comparative review of artificial muscles for microsystem applications.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2021Review
- Physics-Informed Modeling and Control of Multi-Actuator Soft Catheter Robots.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2021Article
- Multilayer fabrication of durable catheter-deployable soft robotic sensor arrays for efficient left atrial mapping.Science advances · 2020Article
- Rapid Design and Analysis of Microtube Pneumatic Actuators Using Line-Segment and Multi-Segment Euler-Bernoulli Beam Models.Micromachines · 2019Article
- An Easy-to-Implement Toolkit to Create Versatile and High-Performance HASEL Actuators for Untethered Soft Robots.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2019Article
- Deployable, Variable Stiffness, Cable Driven Robot for Minimally Invasive Surgery.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Pneumatically actuated soft robots address many challenges with interfacing with delicate objects, but these actuators/robots are still bulky and require many hours to fabricate, limiting their widespread use. This article reports a novel design and manufacturing method for ultrathin soft robots and actuators (∼70 μm) using a laser-cutting machine that cuts/welds sheets of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) from a 2D CAD drawing. Using this method, five different soft actuators (e.g., bending, rotating, contracting) are designed, fabricated, and characterized with both planar and nonplanar motions. Furthermore, we show how stacking multiple sheets of TPU enables rapid fabrication of multifunctional actuators. Finally, a portable four-arm swimming robot is designed and fabricated without any assembly steps. This rapid fabrication method enables soft robots to go from concept to operational within minutes, and creates a new subclass of soft robots suitable for applications requiring a robot to be ultrathin, lightweight, and/or fit within small volumes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.