Fig. 4: Demonstration of tough, self-healable, and somatosensitive soft robot.

a Schematic illustration of the robust, self-healing soft robot with a stretchable multimodal sensor, damage sensor, and flexion sensor. All components of the soft robot are constructed from durable, self-healing elastomer, along with resilient and self-healing conductors and ionic conductors. b Schematic illustration of the autonomous restoration of actuating and sensing functions. Thanks to the inherent high toughness and self-healing properties of the soft robot’s materials, it is capable of automatic mechanical and electrical self-repair, facilitating the restoration of actuating and sensing functions. c Photographs of a soft robot grabbing three objects. d Real time sensing of grabbing three objects. Multimodal sensor and flexion sensor recognized mechanical stimuli, thermal stimuli from target objects and actuation of grippers accurately. e Photographs of the self-healing soft gripper. After cutting the gripper in half, the grippers were attached to each other. After some time, a self-healed gripper could be actuated well. f Photographs of self-healing from actuation-ability damage. After applying the notch to the gripper, we measured the maximum actuation capability of the soft gripper over time. The yellow-dotted illustration shows the maximum actuation capability of a pristine soft gripper. g Graph comparing changes of bending angle with respect to the applied volume of air (Pristine gripper, self-healed gripper, gripper under healing, and damaged gripper). h Photographs and graph of real-time sensing of the somatosensory system and healing from tactility damage.