Smart Thermally Actuating Textiles

Abstract

Soft robots have attracted attention for biomedical and consumer devices. However, most of these robots are pneumatically actuated, requiring a tether and thus limiting wearable applications that require multiple controlled actuators. By pairing liquid‐vapor phase change actuation with a textile‐based laminated manufacturing method, smart thermally actuating textiles (STATs) eliminate the need for a pneumatic tether. STATs are lightweight and unobtrusive for wearable applications and exploit a facile manufacturing approach that supports arbitrary customization of the form factor and easy creation of connected arrays of individual robotic modules. Through integrated sensing and heating elements, STATs demonstrate closed‐loop feedback that enables dynamic pressure control in the presence of environmental temperature fluctuations.

Textile Technology for Soft Robotic and Autonomous Garments

“…Alternative fluidic power sources have been suggested [ 258 ] and recently used in textile‐based devices. [ 259,260 ] These actuators either use a textile as a constraining pouch material and contain an oversized internal bladder (currently allowing for a larger design space in terms of textile structure) or are made from composite heat‐sealable textile materials—fabrics with an integrated thermoplastic coating or lamination. The heat sealable approach allows for less complex, more streamlined manufacturing procedures and more predictable, less hysteretic behavior, as there are no effects of friction and entanglement between the constraining outer textile and internal bladders.…”

“…To simplify the patterning process, removing wet chemistry, Sanchez and colleagues used a laser cutting strategy to produce arrays of composite capacitive pressure sensors with minimal manual alignment steps. [ 259 ] Sundaran looked at scaling up the number of sensing nodes in arrays and integrated 548 low‐cost composite resistive pressure sensors into a knit glove, enabling deep characterization on human grasping. [ 489 ] Others used a composite strategy for multiple DOF sensors, like Viry and colleagues.…”

Kirigami Engineering—Nanoscale Structures Exhibiting a Range of Controllable 3D Configurations

“…Particularly interesting are structures near the symmetry breaking threshold, for which the transition between competing states may be dynamically induced by an external stimulus. The possibility of controlling the transition between configuration modes would be useful for a diversity of promising applications, ranging from smart thermally actuating textiles, [ 43 ] tunable metamaterials, [ 44,45 ] deformable electronics, [ 46 ] and soft‐robotics. [ 47–50 ]…”

Micro Elastic Pouch Motors: Elastically Deformable and Miniaturized Soft Actuators Using Liquid-to-Gas Phase Change

“…In order to address this problem, HASEL actuators [8], [9], [10] and liquid-to-gas phase-change actuators [11], [12], [13], [14], [15] have been proposed, and these actuators encapsulate a functional fluid inside the bladder and use the intrinsic characteristics of the liquid. Since these actuators are free from the pneumatic tubes, valves, and large air compressors needed to drive the actuator, the systems can be simplified and are more highly suitable for soft robots.…”

“…1 shows the structure and principle of the mEPM. Owing to its structure and material, the spherical rubber pouch could be miniaturized to 5 mm in diameter and can inflate greatly, as compared with conventional actuators containing low-boiling-point liquid Novec™ 7000 [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [19]. The proposed an actuator that can generate a significant force (max.…”