https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/21/mit-researchers-develop-a-much-better-way-to-optimize-the-control-of-soft-robots/

MIT researchers have developed a new way to optimize how soft robots perform specific tasks – a huge challenge when it comes to soft robotics in particular, because robots with flexible bodies can basically move in an infinite number of ways at any given moment, so programming them to do something in the best way possible is a monumental task.

To make the whole process easier and less computationally intensive, the research team has developed a way to take what is effectively a robot which can move in infinite possible dimensions and simplify it to a representative ‘low-dimensional’ model that can accurately be used to optimize movement, based on environmental physics and the natural ways that soft objects shaped like any individual soft robot is actually most likely to bend in a giving setting.