Soft Robotics for Chemists

Ilievski, Filip; Mazzeo, Aaron D.; Shepherd, Robert F.; Chen, Xin; Whitesides, George M.

doi:10.1002/ange.201006464

Cited by 757 publications

(636 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…[6][7][8] The flexibility of soft actuators offers potentially useful approaches to problems in robotics, and to the design of actuators, grippers, and other soft machines. They can also take advantage of often highly non-linear responses to actuation to accomplish, relatively simply, types of complex motions and tasks that are more difficult to accomplish using hard machines and conventional controllers.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Soft pneumatic robots based on flexible elastomers, as one simple example, can distribute pressure uniformly over large areas without elaborate controls; this capability makes it possible for them to manipulate fragile and irregular objects. [6,9] The mobility of the soft robotic structures with which we have worked-structures actuated by the expansion of elastomeric pneumatic networks-have been limited to a single bending mode in the direction defined by the anisotropy of the pneumatic expansion. [6,7] We wished to improve the motion capabilities of these systems, and specifically to fabricate entirely soft robotic actuators with three-dimensional (3D) motion, low cost, and simplicity of control.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…[17,18] Our previous work in soft robotics has demonstrated the use of pneumatic networks (PneuNets)-fabricated in elastomeric materials using soft lithographic techniques highly developed in microfluidics-to serve as soft robotic actuators. [6,7] Here we use these systems to generate new types of elastomeric soft actuators that allow 3D motion. This type of actuator is simple to fabricate, flexible in its operation, and inexpensive.…”

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Robotic Tentacles with Three‐Dimensional Mobility Based on Flexible Elastomers

et al. 2012

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Robotic Tentacles with Three‐Dimensional Mobility Based on Flexible Elastomers

et al. 2012

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“…This type of adaptability is characteristic of many soft pneumatic-based systems. [5,9,10] This gripper can hold and lift objects of complex shapes (for example, a toy elephant; Figure S5a, supporting video: gripper_toy.mp4), and a 50 g standard weight ( Figure S5b, supporting video: gripper_weight.mp4).Using buckling actuators for locomotion. Soft buckling actuators have potential applications in devices that translate/locomote: they are light, and (in principle) adaptive to their environment.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…It is based on a cooperative, reversible, buckling motion in structures consisting of a slab of an elastic polymer (or other elastic material) containing arrays of interacting beams and void spaces, when subjected to uniform compression. Previous studies of soft machines (grippers and tentacles) [5,9,10] have focused on actuations that produce motions based primarily on bending: e.g., grasping and walking. The buckling motions produced in the systems described here result in torsional motions, with angular rotations of ~30°, localized at specific points in the structures.…”

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Buckling of Elastomeric Beams Enables Actuation of Soft Machines

et al. 2015

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Motion 3Historically, many machines (especially robots) were designed to mimic the motions of humans and other animals, but to add power, speed, "endurance," and reproducibility to those motions. [1] The robots on industrial assembly lines, for example, extend the capabilities of the workers that originally carried out assembly by hand using simple tools, by adding power, complex tools, indifference to environmental conditions, and mechanical "endurance". Similarly, four-wheeled robots are loosely derived from fourlimbed animals, and aerial drones can be traced in design backwards in time through manned aircraft, to birds. Conventional machines-especially those fabricated from metal, ceramics, and structural polymers (so-called "hard" machines)-can carry out almost arbitrarily complex motions using pulleys, cables, gears, and electric or hydraulic actuators. To achieve controlled motion, however, they also normally require complex systems for active controls (networks of sensors, actuators, and feedback controllers). [2,3] Some of these "hard" systems are exquisitely and highly developed, but can be heavy, energy inefficient, dangerous to humans, and expensive.We are exploring soft actuators and robots-machines modeled after simpler animals (e.g., starfish, worms, and squid) having no hard internal or external structures, and fabricated entirely or predominantly in soft, compliant polymers. [4,5] The first generation of these systems-originally sketched by Suzumori, [6][7][8] and then realized and elaborated by us, [5,[9][10][11][12][13] and by others [4] -use pneumatic actuators, comprising networks of micro-channels; in our systems, differential expansion of these pneumatic networks (PneuNets) by pressurization using air produces motions (especially bending, curling, and variants on them) that are already established as useful in grippers, and interesting for their potential in walkers, tentacles, and a number of other soft, actuated systems. [14] 4 Although the design of the first of these systems has been relatively simple, the motion they produce on actuation can be surprisingly sophisticated: for example, a representative structure-the "finger" or "tentacle" of a gripper-curls non-uniformly, starting from its tip and proceeding to its stem, although the pressure applied in the PneuNet is approximately uniform throughout the system of inflatable channels. [10,11] This motion reflects a non-linear property of soft materials and structures, referred to as a "snapthrough instability". [15][16][17][18][19] Although nonlinear properties of materials are often considered a disadvantage, this type of non-linearity, illustrated by snap-through, and other complex mechanical characteristics of soft systems, are proving to be useful, and to offer new capabilities to effectors, machines, and robots, because they enable a range of motions of sufficient complexity that-although they might be possible to replicate in a hard robotic system [20] -it would be complicated and expensive to do so. This paper demonstrates the ut...

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Ionic and Capacitive Artificial Muscle for Biomimetic Soft Robotics

et al. 2014

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We report here the development of an actuator with an ionic electroactive polymer (IEAP) laminate that is exclusively designed to exhibit a combination of high electrically induced strain and high bending modulus. The newly constructed laminate is one of the few IEAPs meeting the requirements for use in miniature soft robotics. The laminate has activated carbon-based electrodes and ionic liquid is used as an electrolyte. Layers of compliant gold foil are used as current collectors. The superior performance of the IEAP laminate is demonstrated by constructing a centimeter-scale robot propelled by a single IEAP actuator. The cyclic locomotion of the robot is inspired by the movements of an inchworm, while the IEAP laminate is used concurrently as an actuator and a structural member. The 830-mg robot is able to crawl on a smooth surface in open air, solely by undulation of its body. The microprocessor-controlled robot has an on-board lithium battery and uses a pulse-width-modulated signal to drive the IEAP actuator. The robot is able to carry its own power supply and even an extra payload. The constructed biomimetic robot is distinctive for the use of a non-planar actuator whose shape is programmed during the manufacturing process.

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Soft Robotics for Chemists

Cited by 757 publications

References 31 publications

Robotic Tentacles with Three‐Dimensional Mobility Based on Flexible Elastomers

Robotic Tentacles with Three‐Dimensional Mobility Based on Flexible Elastomers

Buckling of Elastomeric Beams Enables Actuation of Soft Machines

Ionic and Capacitive Artificial Muscle for Biomimetic Soft Robotics

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