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Unlike conventional rigid robotics, the added softness in linkages or joints promises to make rehabilitation robots compliant, which translates into higher levels of safety, comfort, usability, and portability, opening the door for these rehabilitation technologies to be used in daily life. While several reviews documented the different technical implementations of soft rehabilitation robots, it is essential to discuss the growing clinical evidence on the feasibility and effectiveness of using this technology for rehabilitative and assistive purposes, whether softness brings the expected advantages from the perspective of end users, and how we should proceed in the future of this field. In this perspective article, we present recent clinical evidence on how 13 different upper limb devices were used in both controlled (clinical) and uncontrolled (at home) settings in more than 37 clinical studies. From these findings and our own experience, we derive recommendations for future developers and end users regarding the design, application, and evaluation of soft robotics for upper limb rehabilitation and assistance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1089\/soro.2024.0034","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,6]],"date-time":"2025-01-06T11:23:13Z","timestamp":1736162593000},"page":"303-314","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Soft Robotics in Upper Limb Neurorehabilitation and Assistance: Current Clinical Evidence and Recommendations"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Natalie","family":"Tanczak","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Singapore-ETH Centre, Future Health Technologies Programme, Singapore, Singapore."},{"name":"Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aaron","family":"Yurkewich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mechatronics Engineering, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Canada."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Francesco","family":"Missiroli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Computer Engineering (ZITI), Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Seng Kwee","family":"Wee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinic for Advanced Rehabilitation Therapeutics (CART), Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, Singapore."},{"name":"Institute of Rehabilitation Excellence (IRex), Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, Singapore."},{"name":"Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore, Singapore."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Simone","family":"Kager","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Singapore-ETH Centre, Future Health Technologies Programme, Singapore, Singapore."},{"name":"Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hyungmin","family":"Choi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Soft Robotics Research Centre (SRRC), Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kyu-Jin","family":"Cho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Soft Robotics Research Centre (SRRC), Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hong Kai","family":"Yap","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Roceso Technologies, Singapore, Singapore."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cristina","family":"Piazza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computation, Information and Technology and Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lorenzo","family":"Masia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computation, Information and Technology and Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Olivier","family":"Lambercy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Singapore-ETH Centre, Future Health Technologies Programme, Singapore, Singapore."},{"name":"Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_5_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s12984-018-0383-x"},{"key":"e_1_3_5_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/app10196976"},{"key":"e_1_3_5_4_2","first-page":"106117","article-title":"Wearable robotics for upper-limb rehabilitation and assistance: A review of the state-of-the-art, challenges and future research","volume":"10","author":"Freer D","year":"2020","unstructured":"Freer D, , Varghese RJ, , Deligianni F, et al. 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