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Soft actuators with large deformation and high stability in response to multi-stimuli are highly demanded in biomimetic applications. However, most of the present actuators driven by a single stimulus often exhibit low performance and high energy consumption. In this work, a sandwich structural soft actuator (MPDMS/MXene/PTFE) which possesses electrothermal/magnetic coupling actuation is fabricated by combining magnetic NdFeB/Polydimethylsiloxane (MPDMS) composite layer, MXene film, and PTFE tape together. Due to the large difference of thermal expansion coefficient between MPDMS film and PTFE tape, the soft actuator shows a wonderful electrothermal actuation and the bending deformation can reach to as high as 353° under a 3 V power supply. The excellent electrical conductivity of MXene component endows the sandwich film with good thermal management performance, thus the soft MPDMS/MXene/PTFE sandwich films can be applied in the thermal treatment of body and thermal imaging. Most importantly, the soft actuator also exhibits a typical magnetic biomimetic actuation and the programmable actuation performance of the dragonfly actuator can be demonstrated by both experiments and finite element simulations. Eventually, the electrothermal/magnetic coupling actuation is successfully applied in an intelligent crawling robot to overcome the traditional inchworm movement simulation. A dual-mode biomimetic soft actuator based on MPDMS/MXene/PTFE with excellent electrothermal and magnetic drive performance is developed. The soft actuator enables to prepare grippers for transferring objects and assemble the wings of a biomimetic dragonfly in a magnetic field. Finally, a crawling robot is developed to demonstrate the electrothermal/magnetic coupling actuation. [Display omitted] • The highlight of this work is: • The MPDMS/MXene/PTFE soft actuator presents both electrothermal and magneto-actuated deformation behaviors. • The soft actuator shows a wonderful electrothermal actuation and the bending deformation can reach to as high as 353° under a 3 V power supply. • The finite element analysis model can provide design guidance for the deformation process of bionic actuator with complex structure. • The soft actuator strategy presented in this paper is expected to be useful for the development of bionic intelligent actuators with multi-stimulus response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]