Rigid-flexible robots are primarily composed of rigid components coupling with compliant material.Rigid robots have high rigidity and good controllability,while flexible robots have good toughness.The rigid-flexible coupled robots integrate both advantages,thus are promising in future development.Here,we introduce the coupled robots in aspects of their current development at home and abroad,and elaborate their three actuation modes:pneumatic driving,electro active polymer driving and shape memory alloy driving.We also focus on the modeling processes commonly used in coupled robots,especially the flexible ones,as well as the control algorithms for the coupled robots.Finally,the future development of rigid-flexible coupled robots is prospected.