Design and fabrication of fiber mesh actuators

•Performance of soft fiber mesh actuators can be tuned by spatial arrangement and chemical reinforcement of fibers.•Design criteria are formation of fiber bundles, angle between fiber bundles in different stacked layers and covalent crosslinks forming within and between fibers.•Anisotropic behavior and soft-tissue like elastic deformability can be realized.•Soft robot skins or active patches supporting tissue regeneration are potential future applications.