Visible Light-Driven Jellyfish-like Miniature Swimming Soft Robot

Abstract

Soft actuators that exhibit large deformation and can move at a fast speed in response to external stimuli have been in high demand for biomimetic applications. In this paper, we propose a convenient approach to fabricate a reversible and thermal-responsive composite hydrogel. Under the irradiation of visible light, the striped hydrogel can bend at a speed of up to 65.72°/s with carbon nanotubes loaded at a concentration of 3 mg/mL. A jellyfish-like miniature soft robot is made using this hydrogel. When driven by visible light, the robot can move at a maximum speed of 3.37 mm/s. Besides swimming, other motion modes, including walking and jumping, are also achieved by the robot. In addition, the robot can perform directional transportation of tiny objects. As a new actuation approach for the research of jellyfish-like miniature soft robots, this work is of great significance to the development of flexible bionic robots. Moreover, this work also offers some important insights into the research of biomimetic robots driven by visible light.

Green–Light–Driven Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-acrylamide)/Fe3O4 Nanocomposite Hydrogel Actuators

“…Second, light-driven bending deformation of P(NIPAM-AM)/nano-Fe 3 O 4 hydrogel in this study is larger than that of PNIPAM/CNTs and PNIPAM/GO hydrogels in literature. Under an irradiation of visible light (0.46 W), the maximum bending angle of PNIPAM/CNTs hydrogel is 80 ° (Yin et al, 2021). The bending angle of PNIPAM/GO nanocomposite hydrogel under laser irradiation (808 nm, 2.76 W) in water is 32 ° (Cheng et al, 2019).…”

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

“…However, because it operates based on fuel consumption inside the robot, it cannot operate continuously. A soft robot made of light-responsive materials can operate wirelessly; however, if an obstacle is encountered between the robot and the light source, the robot cannot function [ 22 , 23 ]. A soft robot whose movement is powered by magnetic forces can operate wirelessly even if an obstacle is encountered [ 24 , 25 , 26 ].…”

Light‐Actuated Anisotropic Microactuators from CNT/Hydrogel Nanocomposites

“…[1,2] Hydrogels with a switchable volume are of particular interest: these change size dramatically upon or by functionalizing CNTs such that polymer growth and crosslinking are initiated directly on the nanotube. [55][56][57][58][59][60][61] The presence of CNTs has so far been used to improve hydrogel response times by enhancing mass transport of water via increased porosity of CNT/hydrogel composites, [21] add light responsivity [21,60,[62][63][64] and electrical conductivity, [50,55,59,65,66] and improve mechanical properties. [50][51][52]54,56] A unique opportunity offered by CNTs that is under-explored in hydrogel composites is the ability to assemble aligned CNTs into 3D structures by using a combination of lithography and chemical vapor deposition of CNTs.…”