  Biomimetic entirely soft robots with animal-like behavior and integrated
artificial nervous systems will open up totally new perspectives and
applications. However, until now all presented studies on soft robots were
limited to partly soft designs, since all designs at least needed conventional,
stiff, electronics, to sense, process signals and activate actuators. We
present the first soft robot with integrated artificial nervous system entirely
made of dielectric elastomers - and without any conventional stiff electronic
parts. Supplied with only one external DC voltage, the robot autonomously
generates all signals necessary to drive its actuators, and translates an
in-plane electromechanical oscillation into a crawling locomotion movement.
Thereby, all functional parts are made of polymer materials and carbon. Besides
the basic design of the world's first entirely soft robot we present prospects
to control general behavior of such robots.
