Related papers: A novel dielectric elastomer actuator based on pol…
Soft robotic actuators are safe and adaptable devices with inherent compliance, which makes them attractive for manipulating delicate and complex objects. Researchers have integrated stiff materials into soft actuators to increase their…
Control over the position, orientation, and stacking order of two-dimensional (2D) materials within van der Waals heterostructures is crucial for applications in electronics, spintronics, optics, and sensing. The most popular strategy for…
Tactile sensation is essential for humans to recognize objects. Various devices have been developed in the past for tactile presentation by electrostatic force, which are easy to configure devices, but there is currently no such device that…
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-based microgels are soft colloids undergoing a Volume Phase Transition (VPT) close to ambient temperature. Although widely employed for fundamental research and application purposes, the modifications of the…
Polymer gels with photo-responsive cross-links enable tunable mechanics and surface morphologies, making them promising for adaptive materials. While prior work on coumarin cross-linked gels has focused on photo-mediated events in dilute…
An experimental investigation comparing the properties of plasma jets in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) configurations using a powered electrode with and without a dielectric barrier, while keeping a second dielectric barrier over the…
Polyelectrolyte gels are a very attractive class of actuation materials with remarkable electronic and mechanical properties with a great similarity to biological contractile tissues. They consist of a polymer network with ionizable groups…
Micro-organisms propel themselves in viscous environments by the periodic, nonreciprocal beating of slender appendages known as flagella. Active materials have been widely exploited to mimic this form of locomotion. However, the realization…
Soft robots utilizing inflatable dielectric membranes can realize intricate functionalities through the application of non-mechanical fields. However, given the current limitations in simulations, including low computational efficiency and…
Polymer electrolytes present a promising solution to the challenges posed by aqueous electrolytes in energy storage systems, offering the flexibility needed for wearable electronics. Despite the increasing interest in polymer…
This study is part of research aiming at increasing the range of dynamic tasks for teleoperated field robotics in order to allow operators to use the full range of human motions without being limited by the dynamics of the robotic…
Thermally stable polymers have attracted a lot of interest due to their potential use as the active component in electronic, optical and optoelectronic applications, such as light-emitting diodes, light emitting electrochemical cells,…
We describe a fluidic actuator design that replaces the sealed chamber of a hydraulic cylinder using a soft actuator to provide compliant linear compression with a large force ($\geq$100 N) at a low operation pressure ($\leq$50 kPa) for a…
Electroactive soft elastomers require huge electric field for a meaningful actuation. We demonstrate that this can be dramatically reduced and giant deformations can be produced by application of suitably chosen heterogeneous actuators. The…
Self-regulated actuators harness material intelligence to enable complex deformations and dynamics, representing a significant advancement in automated soft robotics. However, investigations on self-regulated soft actuators, particularly…
Vision-based tactile sensors (VBTSs) are a promising technology for robots, providing them with dense signals that can be translated into a multi-faceted understanding of contact. However, existing VBTS tactile surfaces make use of silicone…
High voltage breakdown in liquid argon is an important concern in the design of liquid argon time projection chambers, which are often used as neutrino and dark matter detectors. We have made systematic measurements of breakdown voltages in…
We present a wearable device with III-V nanowires in a flexible polymer, which is used for active mechanical tuning of the second-harmonic generation intensity. An array of vertical GaAs nanowires was grown with metalorganic vapour-phase…
Inspired by the dendritic integration and spiking operation of a biological neuron, flexible oxide-based neuron transistors gated by solid-state electrolyte films are fabricated on flexible plastic substrates for biochemical sensing…
Stroke-induced motor impairment often results in substantial loss of upper-limb function, creating a strong demand for rehabilitation robots that enable safe and transparent physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Variable stiffness…