As underwater missions become more and more complex, novel underwater manipulators with better performance are demanding. Soft underwater manipulators are judged to be the development direction and expected to have better performance in safe and compliant interaction with the target in underwater operations such as biological sampling. This paper provides an overview on the state-of-the-art of both hard and soft underwater manipulators to give a prospect for soft underwater manipulators. Key technologies in the design of soft underwater manipulators are identified, including the configuration design, actuator design and stiffening design of them.
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