ABSTRACT Additive manufacturing, commonly referred to as three‐dimensional (3D) printing, provides the geometric freedom and multi‐material integration needed to build soft medical robots for minimally invasive interventions, prosthetics, and rehabilitation. By directly fabricating internal fluidic channels, graded architectures, and patient‐specific geometries, 3D printing bypasses the limits of molding and assembly to enable true personalization. The toolbox spans extrusion‐based printing for elastomers and hydrogels, vat photopolymerization for high‐resolution microdevices, material jetting for voxel‐level property control, and 4D printing that encodes time‐dependent shape change. In parallel, advances in printable functional materials expand actuation, sensing, and durability: liquid crystal elastomers, hydrogels, silicones, conductive and stimuli‐responsive polymer composites, liquid metals, and metal particle reinforced composites now offer stimuli‐responsiveness, self‐healing, and biodegradability that support closed‐loop control and biocompatibility. These capabilities drive applications from wearable rehabilitation devices to minimally invasive surgical tools, implantable systems, and untethered ingestible robots, illustrating how each design choice (fabrication method or material) maps to a specific clinical function. We integrate recent progress into a unified framework and map key challenges: robust embedded sensor networks for multi‐DOF control; printed materials that retain function under physiological stress and sterilization; and safe on‐board or wireless power for untethered operation. We also highlight needs in scalable manufacturing, intuitive interfaces, and regulatory pathways tailored to soft robotic devices. Looking ahead, tighter integration of multi‐material printing with tissue‐like, stimuli‐responsive chemistries could yield monolithic soft systems that co‐integrate actuation, sensing, and on‐board or wirelessly replenished power, reducing assembly and accelerating translation from prototypes to clinical devices.
Wang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.