An untethered mechanically-intelligent inchworm robot powered by a shape memory alloy oscillator

Thomas, Sean; Germano, Paolo; Martinez, Thomas; Perriard, Yves

doi:10.1016/j.sna.2021.113115

Cited by 17 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Artificial muscles that convert external energy to mechanical energy are of great interest because of their potential applications in devices like exoskeletons, prostheses, and bionic robots. Many functional materials have been used as artificial muscles, such as shape memory polymers, [1,2] shape memory alloys, [3] dielectric elastomers, [4][5][6][7][8] polymer fibers, [9][10][11] ionic polymer metal composites, [12,13] graphene-based fibers, [14][15][16] and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). [17][18][19][20][21] CNT yarns are especially promising candidates due to their high strokes, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and mechanical strength.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast Large‐Stroke Sheath‐Driven Electrothermal Artificial Muscles with High Power Densities

Jia

Wang

et al. 2022

Adv Funct Materials

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Electrothermal carbon nanotube (CNT) yarn muscles can provide large strokes during thermal cycling. However, the slow cooling rate of thermal muscles limits their applications, since large diameter prior-art thermal muscles cannot be rapidly cycled. Herein, a fast thermally powered sheath-driven yarn muscle that uses a hybrid CNT sheath and an inexpensive polymer core, is reported. The stroke recovery rate for the hybrid muscle is much lower at all frequencies than for about the same diameter sheath-driven muscle, which means that the full cycle contractile mechanical power is much higher than for comparable prior-art hybrid muscle. More specifically, the coiled sheathdriven muscle contracts 14.3% at 1 Hz and 7.3% at 8 Hz in air when powered by a square-wave electrical voltage input, which is 2.9-and 11.4-times the stroke of the coiled hybrid muscle at these respective frequencies. An average power density of 12 kW kg −1 is obtained for a sheath-driven muscle, which is 42-times that for human skeletal muscle. These high-performance results since the heating that drives fast actuation cycles are largely restricted to the muscle sheath, and this sheath is in direct contact with ambient temperature air.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast Large‐Stroke Sheath‐Driven Electrothermal Artificial Muscles with High Power Densities

Jia

Wang

et al. 2022

Adv Funct Materials

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“…Therefore, for pneumatic supply, an external air pump larger than the robot must be connected to the robot and tube [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Thermally operated soft robots mainly contain shape memory alloy (SMA) elements [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Generally, a Joule heating method is used to heat an SMA connected by a power supply and electric wires.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wireless Inchworm-like Compact Soft Robot by Induction Heating of Magnetic Composite

2023

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Microrobots and nanorobots have been produced with various nature-inspired soft materials and operating mechanisms. However, freely operating a wirelessly miniaturized soft robot remains a challenge. In this study, a wireless crawling compact soft robot using induction heating was developed. The magnetic composite heater built into the robot was heated wirelessly via induction heating, causing a phase change in the working fluid surrounding the heater. The pressure generated from the evaporated fluid induces the bending of the robot, which is composed of elastomers. During one cycle of bending by heating and shrinking by cooling, the difference in the frictional force between the two legs of the robot causes it to move forward. This robot moved 7240 μm, representing 103% of its body length, over nine repetitions. Because the robot’s surface is made of biocompatible materials, it offers new possibilities for a soft exploratory microrobot that can be used inside a living body or in a narrow pipe.

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“…In the animal kingdom, some insects are able to employ relatively simple driving mechanisms and structures to achieve diverse locomotion patterns. In this article, inspired by the terrestrial crawling of inchworms [17][18][19][20] (Figure 1a top inset) and the rapid movement on water surface of water strider [21][22][23][24][25] (Figure 1a bottom inset), we designed a light-driven soft robot with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and MXene (Ti 3 C 2 T x ) as the main light-absorbing materials. As shown in Figure 1b, the soft robot can not only crawl directionally on the ground like an inchworm, DOI: 10.1002/aisy.202300466 Amphibious robots, which are expected to move agilely in both land and water environments with huge differences in medium density, have always been a hot spot in the field of robotics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light‐Driven Amphibious Mini Soft Robot Mimicking the Locomotion Gait of Inchworm and Water Strider

Zhu,

Shang,

Huang

et al. 2023

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Amphibious robots, which are expected to move agilely in both land and water environments with huge differences in medium density, have always been a hot spot in the field of robotics. However, limited by the simple structure and drive system, the existing mini‐robots have a relatively single‐movement mode, which limits their ability to move in complex environments. This article fuses two different biomimetic morphological features to create an amphibious mini‐robot: mimicking the body shape and gait of a terrestrial inchworm, and mimicking the superhydrophobic leg shape and gait of an aquatic water strider. The light‐driven approach also brings the advantage of remote wireless manipulation. The mass of the robot is only 8 mg, and it has fast land movement speed (≈0.05 times body length s−1), water surface movement speed (≈0.5 times body length s−1), and some obstacle‐crossing ability (over obstacles of ≈64% of the robot's height). Moreover, the robot can quickly switch from land to water locomotion, which is expected to facilitate emerging applications in various industrial and biomedical settings.

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An untethered mechanically-intelligent inchworm robot powered by a shape memory alloy oscillator

Cited by 17 publications

References 25 publications

Fast Large‐Stroke Sheath‐Driven Electrothermal Artificial Muscles with High Power Densities

Fast Large‐Stroke Sheath‐Driven Electrothermal Artificial Muscles with High Power Densities

Wireless Inchworm-like Compact Soft Robot by Induction Heating of Magnetic Composite

Light‐Driven Amphibious Mini Soft Robot Mimicking the Locomotion Gait of Inchworm and Water Strider

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