Soft Robotic‐Adapted Multimodal Sensors Derived from Entirely Intrinsic Self‐Healing and Stretchable Cross‐Linked Networks

Abstract

Flexible sensing technologies that play a pivotal role in endowing robots with detection capabilities and monitoring their motions are impulsively desired for intelligent robotics systems. However, integrating and constructing reliable and sustainable flexible sensors with multifunctionality for robots remains an everlasting challenge. Herein, an entirely intrinsic self‐healing, stretchable, and attachable multimodal sensor is developed that can be conformally integrated with soft robots to identify diverse signals. The dynamic bonds cross‐linked networks including the insulating polymer and conductive hydrogel with good comprehensive performances are designed to fabricate the sensor with prolonged lifespan and improved reliability. Benefiting from the self‐adhesiveness of the hydrogel, strong interfacial bonding can be formed on various surfaces, which promotes the conformable integration of the sensor with robots. Due to the ionic transportation mechanism, the sensor can detect strain and temperature based on piezoresistive and thermoresistive effect, respectively. Moreover, the sensor can work in triboelectric mode to achieve self‐powered sensing. Various information can be identified from the electrical signals generated by the sensor, including hand gestures, soft robot crawling motions, a message of code, the temperature of objects, and the type of materials, holding great promise in the fields of environmental detection, wearable devices, human‐machine interfacing, and robotics.

Universal Hydrogel Adhesives with Robust Chain Entanglement for Bridging Soft Electronic Materials

“…To demonstrate the remarkable performance of d-HAPT as an adhesive, a comparative analysis was conducted against the existing adhesives used in soft electronics (Fig. 3l and Supplementary Table 2) [33][34][35][36] . d-HAPT is a thin adhesive that enables rapid and robust bonding (shear strength ≈ 200 kPa, T-peel strength ≈ 4 N/cm for soft materials) (Supplementary Fig.…”

“…The diminished light intensity was recovered as soon as the device was relaxed to its original length suggesting the stable adhesion of the soft and rigid components via d-HAPT. Supplementary Table 3 demonstrates the comparison of various adhesion methods that attach various building blocks of soft electronics 23,24,[33][34][35][36][37][38]41,42 . While some studies exhibit the exceptional adhesive strength, none of them show multifunctional adhesive properties including soft/soft, rigid/rigid, soft/rigid, soft/hydrogel, and rigid/hydrogel and their electrical applications.…”

Advanced Flexible Sensing Technologies for Soft Robots

“…In another related work, Dai et al designed a hydrogel-based stretchable multimodal sensor capable of detecting strain and temperature separately. [41] Furthermore, the sensor operated in friction electric mode and was also able to recognize gesture information, object temperature, and material type. Real-time reconstruction of multi joint bending using the vector sum model.…”

Self-Perceptional Soft Robotics by a Dielectric Elastomer

“…Furthermore, these tentacles serve the dual purpose of facilitating hunting and swimming. Since human civilization, researchers have been working to create robots that act like real living organisms with the advantages of softness, deformability, and environmental adaptability. − In recent years, with the growing deepening of multidisciplinary cross research, soft robots have developed toward flexibility, , compactness, , and simplicity ,, and interacted with multimodal perception and interaction. − Nonetheless, in soft robot actuation and perception research, actuation and perception are frequently separated. ,− Actuation structures are designed solely for actuation purposes, while perception structures are designed solely for perception purposes. This separation hinders the development of compact and flexible systems.…”