Soft robotics has applications in myriad fields from assistive wearables to autonomous exploration. Now, the portability and the performance of many devices are limited by their associated pneumatic energy source, requiring either large, heavy pressure vessels or noisy, inefficient air pumps. Here, we present a lightweight, flexible, electro-pneumatic pump (EPP), which can silently control volume and pressure, enabling portable, local energy provision for soft robots, overcoming the limitations of existing pneumatic power sources. The EPP is actuated using dielectric fluid–amplified electrostatic zipping, and the device presented here can exert pressures up to 2.34 kilopascals and deliver volumetric flow rates up to 161 milliliters per second and under 0.5 watts of power, despite only having a thickness of 1.1 millimeters and weight of 5.3 grams. An EPP was able to drive a typical soft robotic actuator to achieve a maximum contraction change of 32.40% and actuation velocity of 54.43% per second. We highlight the versatility of this technology by presenting three EPP-driven embodiments: an antagonistic mechanism, an arm-flexing wearable robotic device, and a continuous-pumping system. This work shows the wide applicability of the EPP to enable advanced wearable assistive devices and lightweight, mobile, multifunctional robots.

软机器人在从辅助可穿戴设备到自主探索的无数领域都有应用。现在，许多设备的便携性和性能受到其相关气动能源的限制，需要大而重的压力容器或嘈杂、低效的气泵。在这里，我们展示了一种轻巧、灵活的电动气动泵 (EPP)，它可以无声地控制体积和压力，为软机器人提供便携式本地能源，克服现有气动动力源的局限性。EPP 是使用介电流体放大的静电拉链驱动的，这里展示的设备可以施加高达 2.34 千帕的压力，并提供高达 161 毫升/秒的体积流量和低于 0.5 瓦的功率，尽管只有 1.1 毫米的厚度和 5.3 克的重量。EPP 能够驱动典型的软机器人执行器以实现每秒 32.40% 的最大收缩变化和 54.43% 的驱动速度。我们通过展示三个 EPP 驱动的实施例来强调这项技术的多功能性：对抗机制、手臂弯曲的可穿戴机器人设备和连续泵送系统。这项工作显示了 EPP 的广泛适用性，可实现先进的可穿戴辅助设备和轻便、移动、多功能的机器人。