Soft wearable robots

This chapter focuses on the recent and growing efforts in the field of soft wearable robotics and discusses how this technology can be used in a variety of applications. This rapidly emerging field will not replace traditional exoskeletons but offers new possibilities to augment the performance of healthy individuals and also to restore function for impaired individuals with residual capacity, where only small to moderate levels of assistance are needed to improve functional ability (e.g., walking, grasping). The requirements for soft wearable robots are fundamentally different than those for rigid exoskeletons, necessitating technological development in areas of actuation, human interfaces, sensing, controls, and system integration.