Conductive fluid receptors can be used to create soft matter computers that are suitable for the control of soft robots. Despite the growing interest in soft robotics, little attention has been paid to the development of soft matter computational mechanisms. Embedding computation directly into soft materials is not only necessary for the next generation of fully soft robots but also for smart materials to move beyond stimulus-response relationships and toward the intelligent behaviors seen in biological systems. This article describes soft matter computers (SMCs), low-cost, and easily fabricated computational mechanisms for soft robots. The building block of an SMC is a conductive fluid receptor (CFR), which maps a fluidic input signal to an electrical output signal via electrodes embedded into a soft tube. SMCs could perform both analog and digital computation. The potential of SMCs is demonstrated by integrating them into three soft robots: (i) a Softworm robot was controlled by an SMC that generated the control signals necessary for three distinct gaits; (ii) a soft gripper was given a set of reflexes that could be programmed by adjusting the parameters of the CFR; and (iii) a two–degree of freedom bending actuator was switched between three distinct behaviors by varying only one input parameter. SMCs are a low-cost way to integrate computation directly into soft materials and an important step toward entirely soft autonomous robots.

中文翻译：

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用于软机器人的软物质计算机

导电流体接收器可用于创建适用于控制软机器人的软物质计算机。尽管人们对软机器人技术的兴趣日益浓厚，但对软物质计算机制的开发却鲜有关注。将计算直接嵌入到软材料中，不仅对于下一代全软机器人来说是必要的，而且对于智能材料来说，超越刺激-响应关系并朝着生物系统中的智能行为迈进也是必不可少的。本文介绍了软物质计算机（SMC），低成本且易于制造的软机器人计算机制。SMC的组成部分是导电流体接收器（CFR），它通过嵌入软管中的电极将流体输入信号映射到电输出信号。SMC可以执行模拟和数字计算。通过将SMC集成到三个软机器人中来展示其潜力：（i）一个Softworm机器人由SMC控制，该SMC生成三个不同步态所需的控制信号；（ii）给软抓具一组反射，可以通过调整CFR的参数进行编程；（iii）通过仅改变一个输入参数，在三个不同的行为之间切换了一个两自由度弯曲致动器。SMC是将计算直接直接集成到软材料中的低成本方法，是朝着完全软的自主机器人迈出的重要一步。（ii）给软抓具一组反射，可以通过调整CFR的参数进行编程；（iii）通过仅改变一个输入参数，在三个不同的行为之间切换了一个两自由度弯曲致动器。SMC是将计算直接直接集成到软材料中的低成本方法，是朝着完全软的自主机器人迈出的重要一步。（ii）给软抓具一组反射，可以通过调整CFR的参数进行编程；（iii）通过仅改变一个输入参数，在三个不同的行为之间切换了一个两自由度弯曲致动器。SMC是将计算直接直接集成到软材料中的低成本方法，是朝着完全软的自主机器人迈出的重要一步。