Related papers: Performance of soft dielectric laminated composite…
Negative activation volumes for dielectric relaxation are rarely reported in solid state physics and are limited to atomic scale processes. Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy on heterogeneous systems, such as polycrystalline calcite and…
Soft pneumatic actuators are widely used in soft robotics because they can produce large motions while remaining compliant enough to interact safely with objects, environments, and the human body. However, their performance is not solely…
Nematic elastomers and glasses are solids that display spontaneous distortion under external stimuli. Recent advances in the synthesis of sheets with controlled heterogeneities have enabled their actuation into non-trivial shapes with…
Amorphous materials of homogeneous structures usually suffer from nonuniform deformation under shear, which can develop into shear localization and eventually destructive shear band. One approach to tackle this issue is to introduce an…
There is a growing need for robots that can change their shape, size and mechanical properties to adapt to evolving tasks and environments. However, current shape-changing systems generally utilize bespoke, system-specific mechanisms that…
Different from conventional electroactive polymers, here we firstly present a new facile actuator made from aluminum alloy. The high-frequency electrically induced flapping motion was characterized under varied physical factors. This…
This paper presents a unified framework to analyze the manipulability and compliance of modular soft-rigid hybrid robotic fingers. The approach applies to both hydraulic and pneumatic actuation systems. A Jacobian-based formulation maps…
We explore the microstructure and phase behavior of confined soft colloids which can actively switch their interactions at a predefined kinetic rate. For this, we employ a reaction-diffusion approach based on a reactive dynamical…
This paper presents design, fabrication and control of a compliant 2D manipulator, a so called soft actuator. Our focus is on fiber-reinforced elastomer actuators driven by a constant pressure hydraulic supply and modulated on/off valves.…
New types of tunable composite materials are considered, the effective microwave permittivity of which may depend on an external dc magnetic field or tensile stress. The composites consist of short pieces of conductive ferromagnetic…
Composite materials are used across engineering applications for their superior mechanical performance, a result of efficient load transfer between the structure and matrix phases. However, the inherently two-dimensional structure of…
Electrostatic actuators provide a promising approach to creating soft robotic sheets, due to their flexible form factor, modular integration, and fast response speed. However, their control requires kilo-Volt signals and understanding of…
Soft robots are powerful tools for manipulating delicate objects, yet their adoption is hindered by two gaps: the lack of integrated tactile sensing and sensor signal distortion caused by actuator deformations. This paper addresses these…
We investigate theoretically the dynamics of two quasidegenerate mechanical modes coupled through an open quantum two-level system. A mean-field approach shows that by engineering the retarded response of the two-level system with a…
Soft robots are known for their ability to perform tasks with great adaptability, enabled by their distributed, non-uniform stiffness and actuation. Bending is the most fundamental motion for soft robot design, but creating robust, and…
Based on extensive first principle calculations, we explore the thickness dependent effective di- electric constant and slab polarizability of few layer black phosphorene. We find that the dielectric constant in ultra-thin phosphorene is…
Recently, a circuits-based approach for modeling the mutual coupling of reconfigurable surfaces, which comprise sub-wavelength spaced passive scattering elements coupled with electronic circuits for enabling the reconfiguration of the…
In this paper, a highly-efficient single-switch-regulated resonant wireless power receiver with hybrid modulation is proposed. To achieve both high efficiency and good output voltage regulation, phase shift and pulse width hybrid modulation…
A predicting model for soft Dielectric Elastomer Generators (DEGs) must consider a realistic model of the electromechanical behaviour of the elastomer filling, the variable capacitor and of the electrical circuit connecting all elements of…
Soft adhesive pads are needed for many robotics applications, and one approach is based on electroadhesion. Here we present a general analytic model and numerical results for electroadhesion for soft solids with arbitrary time-dependent…