Bio‐Inspired Rapid‐Responsive and Self‐Sensing Electrohydraulic Soft Actuator

ABSTRACT Compared to traditional rigid robots, soft robots offer advantages in compliance, safety, and adaptability, making them well‐suited for applications in human–robot interaction, biomedical devices, and exploratory robotics. However, it remains challenging for existing soft actuators to integrate rapid responsiveness with inherent sensing capabilities, both of which are essential for timely adaptation to external stimuli. In this work, we present a soft actuator, which merges the electrohydraulic actuation mechanism with Mimosa‐inspired morphing strategy to achieve fast responsiveness and significant deformation capacity. The in situ integrated capacitive sensing function further endows the actuator with intuitive touch‐based interaction. The actuator exhibits a rapid response time of 0.09 s, a maximum bending angle of 64°, stable performance over 1600 actuation cycles. Beyond fundamental characterization, we further demonstrate a self‐sensing grasping experiment, highlighting its potential for interactive manipulation. These characteristics indicate significant promise for applications in interactive soft robotics and bio‐inspired systems.