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Machine Learning and Soft Robotics
Nada Masood Mirza
College of Engineering
Al-Ain University
Al Ain, UAE
nada.mirza@aau.ac.ae
Abstract—In recent times, robotics and especially soft
robotics has attracted a wide range of researchers and
scientists. As oft robotics has an extensive number of
advantages in the real environment, due to their less complex
system and cost. Soft grippers are more adaptive as
compared to the rigid robotic grippers. The grasping
performance of soft robots can be improved without bringing
major changes in the control inputs. Machine learning has
played a vital role in improving the controls and increasing
the number of applications of these kinds of robots in the real
world. In this paper relevant research in modeling, design,
intelligent control, sensing, and practical applications of soft
robots has been discussed.
Keywords—machine learning, soft robotics, bio robotics,
soft grippers
I. INTRODUCTION
By every passing day, robotics is attaining new and
extensive application fields; it is becoming inescapable in
daily life. They are being introduced everywhere around
human beings. Manipulation skills at a micro and macro
scale are very important desires for the evolving
applications of the robots, and this is required both in the
industry (e.g. handling food, fabrics, leather) and in less
structured domains (e.g. surgery, space, undersea) [1], [2],
[3]. Gripping and manipulation are basic factors which
limit the competence of robots to behave or function like
human beings. To make sure the safe and useful working of
robots with human workers, they need to imitate the
functions of human hands to be able to fulfill the tasks
which need a lot of precision, for example, inserting
components, handling delicate materials, etc. The human
hand is an extraordinary form of biological engineering. It
has 27 degrees of freedom (DOF), opposable thumbs and at
the same time, it can comprehend the pressure, applied
force, weight, and temperature. It has 34 muscles, 29 major
and minor bones, 29 major joints, and at least 123
ligaments which all together make a very complicated
assembly. However, these days’ robotic grippers which are
capable of imitating human hand behavior are
manufactured on a commercial basis and various research
groups are working on them. Among these designed hands
some are anthropomorphic, which means they look like the
pentadactylous structure of the human hand whereas others
are based on various pioneering design perceptions. This
paper's scope is to provide the details of such kind of
developments and their applications [4]
Over the last few years, an upward concentration in the
field of development of soft robotic hands has been
observed. This is since these hands can be used in a wide
range of applications; such as knob twisting, pick and
placed, fingertip grasp, as well as automating various
assembly procedures and manufacturing plants. For now,
‹,(((
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one of the problems being faced in industries using robotic
hands is the insufficient capacity of them to deal with the
flexible size and shape of objects [5], [6], [7]. To attain all
the mentioned applications, it is necessary to fully comply
with the complexity of the human hand. This is so far not
possible reason being the human hand is the most
extraordinary and complicated outer extremity of the
human body [8]. Hence the final goal of all the research and
experimentation is to manufacture a robotic hand with a
high level of dexterity. Whereas ‘Dexterity’ is an index to
measure the capability of the robotic hand [9]. A dexterous
robotic hand comprises certain specifications which make
them an appropriate design for the industry usage. But
unfortunately, their working capabilities can be effected
and wasted by the usage of unnecessary sensors, actuators,
and no advance control procedures [10], [11].
In the upcoming sections different designs, control
techniques, and utilities of the soft robots are being
elaborated.
II. DESIGN OF SOFT ROBOTIC HANDS
The basic purpose in designing the robotic hand is
always to make it capable of performing the real-world
tasks such as doing household tasks, picking up things,
grasping objects, etc. one of the major challenges faced by
researchers and scientists is to simplify the structure of
hand but still keeping the good levels of dexterity and
robustness. Under actuation and passive mechanical
adaption are two principles that are being focused at while
developing the robotic-hand to perform grasping of the
common objects in the real world. In the upcoming section,
some of the practical designs of robotic hands are grippers
are being discussed.
A. Anthropomorphic Hands and Grippers
Shadow Robot Company has produced one of the best
known anthropomorphic grippers, named “Dexterous
Hand”. It is pentadactylous and it consists of 20 actuated
degree of freedom (DOF), 4 under-actuated movements,
together they make 24 joints and 129 sensors. Every joint is
capable of performing a wide range of movements, which
are very close to the human hand. Furthermore, it includes
force sensing, tactile sensing, temperature sensing, motor
current, and voltage sensing. Data can be acquired from
these sensors at the rate of 100Hz up to 1 kHz. A pneumatic
option can also be utilized to control this hand.
As a small scale version of Dexterous Hand, Hand-Lite
is produced. It has 13 DOF and 16 joints along with the 16
joint position sensors, 13 motor current, and temperature
sensors and last but not least 26 tendon strain gauges. Both
hands are shown in figure 1. [4]

Figure 1: Dexterous Hand and Hand-Lite [4]
Due to a successful collaboration between Shadow
Hands and the University of the Southern California based
company named SynTouch LLC further improved versions
of sensors became available. They were being fitted to
many types of grippers and robots. These sensors are
similar to BioTac tactile sensor package which are capable
of mimicking the physical properties and sensory qualities.
It can easily perform human-like tasks, for example
gripping a soft structure without damaging it, as shown in
figure 2.
Figure 2: The Shadow Dexterous Hand gripping a tomato [4]
Similarly, there is a three-fingered programmable
gripper named Barrett Hand which was being produced by
the company originated from the Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory of MIT in 1990.
Anthropomorphic hands are also being developed by
DLR (German Aerospace Centre) since 1993. DLR II is
considered to be the latest model and it has 4 fingers, 4
joints, and 3 DOF.
Wessling Robotics was established in 2003 and it
produced Wessling Robotic Hand. It consists of 5 fingers
and similar to DLR Hand as practically this company was
originated from DLR.
Soft grippers have recently been introduced in a small
but growing number. They use the technology pioneered by
Whiteside’s Group at Harward. They are using the
pneumatically control for actuated polymer fingers and they
can grasp a wide variety of objects with different shapes,
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sizes, and weights. The soft robotic gripper is shown in
figure 3 [4].
Figure 3: Soft Robotic Gripper [4]
Recently in 2018 another under actuated and modular
gripper is being modeled and prototyped by Hussain et al
[12], in the proposed gripper every link (phalanx) consists
of a rigid and soft part. This gripper is being shown in
figure 4.
Figure 4: Two-finger cable driver modular gripper [12]
B. Soft Materials for the Robotic Hands
Recently there is more emphasis on the research of soft
materials and their mechanism. Studies are being conducted
to design these hands in a simpler, lighter, and universal
manner.
Reasons behind this excessive research are the
following:
x To perform soft manipulations with the help of
prosthetic hands or human-skin liked soft hands.
x For the development of soft actuators.
x Their quality of not damaging or leaving any mark
behind, when grasping any soft object.
x Due to area contact, it gives much better and stable
grasping.
Some of the existing soft materials are synthetic rubber,
elastomer, natural rubber, Nano-particulate polymer
composite, and polymer composite [13].
Many robotic hands and structures are developed and
analyzed using soft materials. For example, Shimoga and
 Goldenberg [14] studied the working of six different linear many-to-one mapping. Using DSL in 2020 James M.
materials and concluded that sponge is best out of them. Bern et al., [24] developed an algorithm to control and plan
The growth of the contact area as a function of applied the movement trajectory of the robotic hand.
normal force for human fingers was discussed by
Kinoshitta et al. [15]. Comparison of stiffness and friction In 2020 Huang et al. [19] performed the recognition of
between the artificial finger and the human finger is gestures, size, weight, and object shape using various ML
analyzed by Han et al. [16] Power Law Theory which is techniques. These approaches included K- nearest neighbor,
related to anthropomorphic soft fingertip contact was support vector machine, logistic regression, and K-means
introduced by Xydas et al. [17] After conducting extensive clustering. Experimental results of this specific experiment
research on the soft fingertip. model suggested that more accuracy was obtained using the
ML techniques as compared to the old school methods.
III. CONTROL OF ROBOTIC HANDS
Soft Robots are playing a vital role in changing the way
robots are being helpful for human beings in various areas,
for example, medical robots, assistive robots, entertainment
and search and rescue. However, still, there is enough
research that needs to be done to achieve the best control
and model of soft robots as they exhibit highly nonlinear
behavior.
Control, kinematics, and dynamics of soft robotic
systems are the way to much different from the traditional,
rigid-bodied robots. New approaches are developed to
control and plan the dynamic operations of soft robotic
systems. They are based on very fundamental feature
compliance, as it allows the system to adjust its function
and shape when it comes in contact with the unknown and
uncertain environment [18].
Under discussion soft robotic hands are still undergoing
extensive research to make them better with the help of
Machine Learning (ML), in Information Perception (IP) Figure 6: Neural Network helping in the prediction of Trajectory
[19]. Machine learning is involved in controlling of soft [20]
robots either by an approximation of dynamic model or by
the direct learning of controllers for a provided behavior. Moreover, to enable the predictive control of the soft
[20] robot it is recommended to learn the inverse kinematics of
manipulators and forward dynamics of the model. In
contrast to this, there is a less common strategy to make the
controllers learn directly, a summary of those is given in
Table 1.
TABLE 1. DIFFERENT PARAMETERS FOR LEARNING CONTROLS [20]

Paper Model Representation

Rolf et al. [25] Constrained Extreme ¾Hardware Training

Learning Machine ¾Adaptive
Figure 5: Collecting and Predicting Data with NN [20]
¾Feedback
Numerous ML algorithms are adapted to enhance the
Thuruthel Recurrent NN ¾Simulation Training
recognition capability of soft robots. et al. [26] ¾Feedback
In 1999 K-Nearest Neighborhood (KNN) technique was
adopted by Naya et al. [21] Fundamental purpose of Schlagenhauf et al. [27] Deep NN ¾Hardware Training
developing this feature was to improve the communication ¾Simulation Training
between humans and robots. ML was used to make sure
that the robot was able to understand the emotions of Lee et al. [28] Ensemble of NNs ¾Hardware Training
human beings just by the virtue of a simple touch. ¾Simulation Training
¾Adaptive
In 2017 Shimoe et al., [22] used a Neural Network ¾Feedback
(NN) based model which comprised of supervised and
unsupervised stages to develop the artificial haptic models. Thuruthel et al. [29] NN ¾Hardware Training
In 1992 Michael I. Jordan and David E. Rumelhart [23]
developed an approach called Distal Supervised Learning Jiang et al. [30] Hierarchical ensemble ¾Hardware Training
(DSL). DSL approach helped in finding the inverse of non- of NNs ¾Feedback

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 Paper Model Representation
C. BionicSoftHand
BionicSoftHand is developed by Festo [36]. This
specific hand is capable of fulfilling the given goal through
Rolf et al. [25] Constrained Extreme ¾Hardware Training the trial and error method. It optimizes its action using the
Learning Machine ¾Adaptive
positive and negative feedback received. It can easily turn
¾Feedback
and orient the provided cube or given object to the desired
Thuruthel Recurrent NN
side.
¾Simulation Training
et al. [26] ¾Feedback Furthermore, many other soft robots are being trained
and designed to work in medical fields and various other
Schlagenhauf et al. [27] Deep NN ¾Hardware Training daily life industries.
¾Simulation Training
V. CONCLUSIONS
Zhang et al. [31] NN Q- function ¾Hardware Training Despite decades since first soft robot was created, there
¾Simulation Trainingis still room for further research for the advancement of soft
¾Feedback robotics. Several challenges still need to be addressed
inspite of the progress made during the recent past. The
Gillespie et al. [32] Deep NN ¾Hardware Training advantages of soft robots can only be harnessed with their
mass introduction in the real world. The focus of
Zhang et al. [33] Deep NN ¾Hardware Training researchers should be development of materials and
¾Simulation Trainingtechniques which are safe and simple for real world
¾Feedback scenarios.

IV. INTELLIGENT APPLICATIONS OF ROBOTIC HANDS

After years of ground-breaking research, a lot of
conceptual soft robots are being commercialized which are
bringing help in the various fields of our daily life. A few
of these major applications are discussed in the upcoming
sections.
A. Smart Prosthetic Hands
The hybrid technology of fuzzy logic and proportional
derivative (PD) is being used recently to develop a smart
hand for the people who have lost their limbs due to various
reasons. This hand is designed by Chen et al [34]. Due to
hybrid techniques being adopted this hand is far better in
mimicking the real human hands. A comparison between
tracking errors due to different computations on the same
hand is shown in figure 6 [34].
Figure 7: Tracking Error Comparison [34]
B. SuperPick
Another smart application of soft robotics came into
reality by the introduction of SuperPick in 2018 by soft
Robotics [35]. This robot is trained to pick, scan, and even
deliver the identified object depending on its dimensions,
weight, and fragility.
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