Recent years have witnessed the rise of commercialization efforts for soft robotics technology, which includes soft grippers, stretchable sensors and platforms for human–robot interactions. However, this commercialization lags behind the trends seen with other robotics technologies at equivalent points in their respective lifecycles. For example, the first patent for an industrial robotic manipulator was filed in 1954, and within two decades, robotic manipulators were adopted onto assembly lines across the world¹. By comparison, despite their origins in the 1980s and an influx of publications starting around 2004, soft robotics technologies are scarce in society². This deployment gap is due largely to uncertainties surrounding the absence of standards, as well as difficulties in replicating published solutions.

Research comprises a dynamic interplay between discovery and distillation into practice. So far in soft robotics, novelty presides. Little emphasis has been placed on rigorous comparisons across studies, and consequently soft robotics lacks standard benchmarks, metrics, data sets, measurement and characterization workflows, and manufacturing recipes. These challenges can be seen across scales.

近年来，软机器人技术的商业化努力不断兴起，其中包括软抓手、可拉伸传感器和人机交互平台。然而，这种商业化落后于其他机器人技术在各自生命周期的同等阶段所看到的趋势。例如，第一个工业机器人操纵器专利于 1954 年申请，二十年内，机器人操纵器被世界各地的装配线采用 ¹ 。相比之下，尽管软机器人技术起源于 20 世纪 80 年代，并且从 2004 年左右开始出现大量出版物，但软机器人技术在社会中却很稀缺 ² 。这种部署差距主要是由于缺乏标准的不确定性以及复制已发布解决方案的困难造成的。

研究包括发现和提炼到实践之间的动态相互作用。到目前为止，在软机器人领域，新颖性占主导地位。很少强调研究之间的严格比较，因此软机器人缺乏标准基准、指标、数据集、测量和表征工作流程以及制造配方。这些挑战可以在各个层面上看到。