Scottish Microelectronics Centre, Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Institute of Marine Sciences-National Research Council (ISMAR-CNR), La Spezia, Italy.
Soft Robot. 2021 Dec;8(6):625-639. doi: 10.1089/soro.2020.0011. Epub 2021 Jan 15.
The ocean and human activities related to the sea are under increasing pressure due to climate change, widespread pollution, and growth of the offshore energy sector. Data, in under-sampled regions of the ocean and in the offshore patches where the industrial expansion is taking place, are fundamental to manage successfully a sustainable development and to mitigate climate change. Existing technology cannot cope with the vast and harsh environments that need monitoring and sampling the most. The limiting factors are, among others, the spatial scales of the physical domain, the high pressure, and the strong hydrodynamic perturbations, which require vehicles with a combination of persistent autonomy, augmented efficiency, extreme robustness, and advanced control. In light of the most recent developments in soft robotics technologies, we propose that the use of soft robots may aid in addressing the challenges posed by abyssal and wave-dominated environments. Nevertheless, soft robots also allow for fast and low-cost manufacturing, presenting a new potential problem: marine pollution from ubiquitous soft sampling devices. In this study, the technological and scientific gaps are widely discussed, as they represent the driving factors for the development of soft robotics. Offshore industry supports increasing energy demand and the employment of robots on marine assets is growing. Such expansion needs to be sustained by the knowledge of the oceanic environment, where large remote areas are yet to be explored and adequately sampled. We offer our perspective on the development of sustainable soft systems, indicating the characteristics of the existing soft robots that promote underwater maneuverability, locomotion, and sampling. This perspective encourages an interdisciplinary approach to the design of aquatic soft robots and invites a discussion about the industrial and oceanographic needs that call for their application.
由于气候变化、广泛的污染以及海上能源部门的发展，海洋和与海洋相关的人类活动正面临越来越大的压力。数据对于成功管理可持续发展和减轻气候变化至关重要，尤其是在海洋中采样不足的区域和工业扩张发生的近海斑块。现有的技术无法应对需要监测和采样的广阔而恶劣的环境。限制因素包括物理域的空间尺度、高压和强水动力干扰，这需要车辆具有持久自主、增强效率、极端鲁棒性和先进控制的组合。鉴于软机器人技术的最新发展，我们提出使用软机器人可能有助于解决深海和波浪主导环境带来的挑战。然而，软机器人也允许快速和低成本制造，这带来了一个新的潜在问题：普遍存在的软采样设备对海洋造成污染。在这项研究中，广泛讨论了技术和科学差距，因为它们是软机器人发展的驱动因素。海上工业支持不断增长的能源需求，机器人在海洋资产上的应用也在不断增加。这种扩张需要依靠对海洋环境的了解，而广阔的远程区域仍有待探索和充分采样。我们提供了对可持续软系统发展的看法，指出了现有软机器人的特点，这些特点促进了水下机动性、运动和采样。这种观点鼓励采用跨学科方法来设计水生软机器人，并邀请讨论需要应用它们的工业和海洋学需求。
