# Multimodal Field-Driven Actuation in Bioinspired Robots: An Emerging Taxonomy and Roadmap Towards Hybrid Intelligence

## TL;DR

This paper reviews how different physical fields can be used to control flexible robots, showing that combining fields improves performance and adaptability in complex environments.

## Contribution

A novel taxonomy and six-dimensional framework for analyzing multimodal actuation in bioinspired robots, revealing hybrid field integration benefits.

## Key findings

- Hybrid field integration improves grasping robustness by 40% in cluttered environments.
- Biohybrid actuators show over 90% motion similarity to biological models.
- Phase-transition materials enable adaptive stiffness tuning for medical applications.

## Abstract

Rigid–flexible coupled robots hold significant potential for operating in unstructured environments, but a systematic analysis of their actuation strategies across diverse physical fields is notably lacking in the literature. This review addresses this gap by introducing a novel taxonomy based on field-controlled evolutionary pathways—mechanical → electromagnetic → chemical → biohybrid—and critically examining over 100 seminal studies through a six-dimensional framework encompassing design, dynamics, and performance. We demonstrate that hybrid field integration (e.g., pneumatic-chemical synergy) improves grasping robustness by 40% in cluttered environments compared to single-field systems. Notably, biohybrid actuators, which integrate living cells, exhibit over 90% motion similarity to biological models, while phase-transition materials allow for adaptive stiffness tuning (0.1–5 N·mm−1) in medical applications. Radar chart analysis further reveals fundamental trade-offs between energy efficiency, response speed, and scalability across the various fields. These insights provide a clear roadmap for the development of next-generation robots with embodied intelligence, emphasizing multi-field synergies and bio-inspired adaptability.