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.

中文翻译：

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用于海洋勘探和海上作业的软机器人：一个视角

由于气候变化、广泛的污染和海上能源部门的增长，海洋和与海洋相关的人类活动面临越来越大的压力。在海洋采样不足的区域和正在进行工业扩张的近海斑块中的数据对于成功管理可持续发展和缓解气候变化至关重要。现有技术无法应对最需要监测和采样的广阔而恶劣的环境。除其他外，限制因素包括物理域的空间尺度、高压和强流体动力扰动，这需要车辆结合持久自主、增强效率、极端鲁棒性和先进控制。鉴于软机器人技术的最新发展，我们建议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。尽管如此，软机器人还可以实现快速和低成本的制造，这带来了一个新的潜在问题：无处不在的软采样设备造成的海洋污染。在这项研究中，技术和科学差距被广泛讨论，因为它们代表了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，并且机器人在海洋资产上的使用正在增长。这种扩张需要通过对海洋环境的了解来维持，那里还有待探索和充分采样的大片偏远地区。我们提供对可持续软系统发展的看法，表明现有软机器人促进水下机动性、运动和采样的特性。这种观点鼓励采用跨学科方法来设计水上软机器人，并邀请人们就需要其应用的工业和海洋需求进行讨论。