fig3

Figure 3. Representative tethered actuation technologies in soft robotics. (A) The tethered robot has four limbs connected to a 3D-printed monolithic body, with four inner coupling channels, scale bars: 1 cm. Adapted with permission from Ref.^[38], Copyright © 2025, AAAS; (B) Upon inflation, an initially flat panel composed of programmed Gaussian cells self-shapes into a complex 3D structure. Adapted with permission from Ref.^[42], Copyright © 2023, AAAS; (C) Hydraulic actuation-enabled soft robotic system with integrated sensing capability. Adapted from Ref.^[44], under CC BY-NC 4.0 license; (D) A holistic design of the biomimetic rigid-soft finger with reduced complexity; (E) MIDI signal comparisons of the music played by the robotic hand, the human hand, and the standard notation. (D) and (E) were adapted with permission from Ref.^[49], Copyright © 2025, AAAS; (F) Schematic diagram and photographs showing a robot navigating through a spiral pipe for inspection, scale bars: 10 mm; Adapted with permission from Ref.^[52], Copyright © 2026, AAAS; (G) Design strategy of weaving LCE fiber soft actuators for multifunctional soft robotics. Adapted from Ref.^[58], under CC BY-NC 4.0 license; (H) Electrothermal-driven amphibious insect-scale robot based on SMA actuators. Reprinted from Ref.^[59], under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. MIDI: Musical instrument digital interface; LCE: liquid crystal elastomer; MCP: metacarpophalangeal; IP: interphalangeal; DE: dielectric elastomer.