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Register a new userDesign of Multifunctional Soft Doming Actuator for Soft Machines
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Bilayer bending based soft actuators are widely utilized in soft robotics for locomotion and object gripping. However, studies on soft actuators based on bilayer doming remain largely unexplored despite the often-observed dome-like shapes in undersea animals such as jellyfish and octopus suction cup. Here, based on the simplified model of bending-induced doming of circular bilayer plates with mismatched deformation, we explore the design of soft doming actuator upon pneumatic actuation and its implications in design of multifunctional soft machines. The bilayer actuator is composed of patterned embedded pneumatic channel on top for radial expansion and a solid elastomeric layer on bottom for strain-limiting. We show that both the cavity volume and bending angle at the rim of the actuated dome can be controlled by tuning the height gradient of the pneumatic channel along the radial direction. We demonstrate its potential multifunctional applications in swimming, adhesion, and gripping, including high efficient jellyfish-inspired underwater soft robots with locomotion speed of 84 cm/min and rotation-based soft grippers with low energy cost by harnessing the large rim bending angle, as well as octopus-inspired soft adhesion actuators with strong and switchable adhesion force of over 10 N by utilizing the large cavity volume.
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Climbing soft robots are of tremendous interest in both science and engineering due to their potential applications in intelligent surveillance, inspection, maintenance, and detection under environments away from the ground. The challenge lies in the design of a fast, robust, switchable adhesion actuator to easily attach and detach the vertical surfaces. Here, we propose a new design of pneumatic-actuated bioinspired soft adhesion actuator working both on ground and under water. It is composed of extremely soft bilayer structures with an embedded spiral pneumatic channel resting on top of a base layer with a cavity. Rather than the traditional way of directly pumping air out of the cavity for suction in hard polymer-based adhesion actuator, we inflate air into the top spiral channel to deform into a stable 3D domed shape for achieving negative pressure in the cavity. The characterization of the maximum shear adhesion force of the proposed soft adhesion actuator shows strong and rapid reversible adhesion on multiple types of smooth and semi-smooth surfaces. Based on the switchable adhesion actuator, we design and fabricate a novel load-carrying amphibious climbing soft robot (ACSR) by combining with a soft bending actuator. We demonstrate that it can operate on a wide range of foreign horizontal and vertical surfaces including dry, wet, slippery, smooth, and semi-smooth ones on ground and also under water with certain load-carrying capability. We show that the vertical climbing speed can reach about 286 mm/min (1.6 body length/min) while carrying over 200g object (over 5 times the weight of ACSR itself) during climbing on ground and under water. This research could largely push the boundaries of soft robot capabilities and multifunctionality in window cleaning and underwater inspection under harsh environment.
Recently, suction-based robotic systems with microscopic features or active suction components have been proposed to grip rough and irregular surfaces. However, sophisticated fabrication methods or complex control systems are required for such systems, and robust attachment to rough real-world surfaces still remains a grand challenge. Here, we propose a fully soft robotic gripper, where a flat elastic membrane is used to conform and contact parts or surfaces well, where an internal negative pressure exerted on the air-sealed membrane induces the suction-based gripping. 3D printing in combination with soft molding techniques enable the fabrication of the soft gripper. Robust attachment to complex 3D and rough surfaces is enabled by the surface-conformable soft flat membrane, which generates strong and robust suction at the contact interface. Such robust attachment to rough and irregular surfaces enables manipulation of a broad range of real-world objects, such as an egg, lime, and foiled package, without any physical damage. Compared to the conventional suction cup designs, the proposed suction gripper design shows a four-fold increase in gripping performance on rough surfaces. Furthermore, the structural and material simplicity of the proposed gripper architecture facilitates its system-level integration with other soft robotic peripherals, which can enable broader impact in diverse fields, such as digital manufacturing, robotic manipulation, and medical gripping applications.
Soft materials with a liquid component are an emerging paradigm in materials design. The incorporation of a liquid phase, such as water, liquid metals, or complex fluids, into solid materials imparts unique properties and characteristics that emerge as a result of the dramatically different properties of the liquid and solid. Especially in recent years, this has led to the development and study of a range of novel materials with new functional responses, with applications in topics including soft electronics, soft robotics, 3D printing, wet granular systems and even in cell biology. Here we provide a review of solid-liquid composites, broadly defined as a material system with at least one, phase-separated liquid component, and discuss their morphology and fabrication approaches, their emergent mechanical properties and functional response, and the broad range of their applications.
Soft actuators allow to transform external stimuli to mechanical deformations. Because of their deformational response to external magnetic fields, magnetic gels and elastomers represent ideal candidates for such tasks. Mostly, linear magnetostrictive deformations, that is, elongations or contractions along straight axes are discussed in this context. In contrast to that, we here suggest to realize a twist actuator that responds by torsional deformations around the axis of the applied magnetic field. For this purpose, we theoretically investigate the overall mechanical response of a basic model system containing discrete magnetizable particles in a soft elastic matrix. Two different types of discrete particle arrangements are used as starting conditions in the nonmagnetized state. These contain globally twisted anisotropic particle arrangements on the one hand, and groups of discrete helical-like particle structures positioned side by side on the other hand. Besides the resulting twist upon magnetization, we also evaluate different other modes of deformation. Our analysis supports the construction of magnetically orientable and actuatable torsional mixing devices in fluidic applications or other types of soft actuators that initiate relative rotations between different components.
Classical rigid-bodied robotic systems are presented with proven success in theoretical development and industrial applications, are recently challenged by the emergence of soft robotics due to a growing need in physical human-robot interactions (pHRI), such as wearable devices, medical robots, personal robots, etc. In this paper, we present the design and fabrication of a robust, hybrid bending actuator build from both rigid and soft components inspired by crustaceans, where its bending radius and axis can be mechanically programmed through the selective activation of the rigid exterior joints, actuated by the soft actuators inside. The hybrid actuator was experimentally measured in terms of bending and force tests to demonstrate the utility of this design. Finally, a case study was presented to demonstrate its capacity to adapt to specific objects geometry, anticipating its potential application in situations where compliance is the priority.
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