Here, we present ultragentle soft robotic actuators capable of grasping delicate specimens of gelatinous marine life. Although state-of-the-art soft robotic manipulators have demonstrated gentle gripping of brittle animals (e.g., corals) and echinoderms (e.g., sea cucumbers) in the deep sea, they are unable to nondestructively grasp more fragile soft-bodied organisms, such as jellyfish. Through an exploration of design parameters and laboratory testing of individual actuators, we confirmed that our nanofiber-reinforced soft actuators apply sufficiently low contact pressure to ensure minimal harm to typical jellyfish species. We then built a gripping device using several actuators and evaluated its underwater grasping performance in the laboratory. By assessing the gripper’s region of acquisition and robustness to external forces, we gained insight into the necessary precision and speed with which grasping maneuvers must be performed to achieve successful collection of samples. Last, we demonstrated successful manipulation of three live jellyfish species in an aquarium setting using a hand-held prototype gripper. Overall, our ultragentle gripper demonstrates an improvement in gentle sample collection compared with existing deep-sea sampling devices. Extensions of this technology may improve a variety of in situ characterization techniques used to study the ecological and genetic features of deep-sea organisms.
catalysts, [11,12] and optical devices. [13][14][15] Such a broad scope of applications demands versatile manufacturing techniques amenable to multiple materials processing and collection conditions. Currently, fiber-fabrication systems can be characterized as melt, [16][17][18] dry, [19,20] wet, [21][22][23] or electrospinning [24,25] -all of which produce nanofibers using high temperature and pressure (melt, dry, and wet spinning) or electric fields (5-20 kV, electrospinning). [24][25][26][27] Once formed, the fibers can be collected and processed using external pumps, alternating applied electric fields, spinnerets, coagulation, and wash chambers, or heated drum rolls to form aligned functional materials. [18,[24][25][26]28,29] Several electrospinning techniques have been developed to further control fiber deposition and structure, producing aligned fibrous nanostructures by minimizing the distance between a charged nozzle and grounded collector. [30][31][32][33][34][35] While these modifications enable geometries which were previously unattainable for electrospun fibers, the technique remains limited in both speed and the range of materials used. Furthermore, harsh reaction environments, The assembly of natural and synthetic polymers into fibrous nanomaterials has applications ranging from textiles, tissue engineering, photonics, and catalysis. However, rapid manufacturing of these materials is challenging, as the state of the art in nanofiber assembly remains limited by factors such as solution polarity, production rate, applied electric fields, or temperature. Here, the design and development of a rapid nanofiber manufacturing system termed pull spinning is described. Pull spinning is compact and portable, consisting of a high-speed rotating bristle that dips into a polymer or protein reservoir and pulls a droplet from solution into a nanofiber. When multiple layers of nanofibers are collected, they form a nonwoven network whose composition, orientation, and function can be adapted to multiple applications. The capability of pull spinning to function as a rapid, point-of-use fiber manufacturing platform is demonstrated for both muscle tissue engineering and textile design.
Soft pneumatic actuators are promising candidates for micro-manipulation and delicate gripping due to their wide range of motion and ease of fabrication. While existing elastomerbased devices have attracted attention due to their compliant structures, there is a need for materials that combine flexibility, controllable actuation, and robustness. This paper bridges this capability gap by introducing a novel fabrication strategy for nanofiber-reinforced soft micro-actuators. The design and manufacturing of composite PDMS/nanofiber actuators using soft lithography and rotary jet spinning is described. We examine the impact of lamina design and fiber orientation on actuator curvature, mechanical properties, and pressurization range. Composite actuators displayed a 25.8% higher maximum pressure than pure PDMS devices. Further, the best nanofiber-reinforced laminates tested were 2.3 times tougher than the control PDMS material while maintaining comparable elongation. Finally, bending and bendingtwisting are demonstrated using pristine and laser-patterned nanofiber sheets, respectively.
Front Cover: Pull spinning is a new nanofiber manufacturing technique that uses a high‐speed rotating bristle to draw anisotropic nanofibers from a polymer solution. The versatile structure and composition of scaffolds formed using pull spinning enables a wide range of applications, including muscle tissue engineering and textile design. This is reported by Leila F. Deravi, Nina R. Sinatra, Christophe O. Chantre, Alexander P. Nesmith, Hongyan Yuan, Sahm K. Deravi, Josue A. Goss, Luke A. MacQueen, Mohammad R. Badrossamy, Grant M. Gonzalez, Michael D. Phillips, Kevin Kit Parker, article number 1600404.
Adipose is a distributed organ that performs vital endocrine and energy homeostatic functions. Hypertrophy of white adipocytes is a primary mode of both adaptive and maladaptive weight gain in animals...
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