Related papers: Towards a soft magnetoelastic twist actuator
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…
We detail a technique to produce actuators able to bear large strain and respond to an external magnetic field. The material used is PDMS reinforced with nickel coated carbon fibres. Thanks to the nickel functionalisation, the fibre…
Aging populations and the rising prevalence of neurological and musculoskeletal disorders increase the demand for wearable mobility assistive devices that are effective, comfortable, and anatomically compatible. Many existing systems use…
Ferromagnetic particles are incorporated in a thin soft elastic matrix. A lamella, made of this smart material, is studied experimentally and modeled. We show herein that thin films can be actuated using an external magnetic field applied…
Ferrogels and magnetoelastomers are composite materials obtained by embedding magnetic particles of mesoscopic size in a crosslinked polymeric matrix. They combine the reversible elastic deformability of polymeric materials with the high…
Macroscopic elastic core-shell systems can be generated as toy models to be deformed and haptically studied by hand. On the mesoscale, colloidal core-shell particles and microgels are fabricated and investigated by different types of…
We derive a model for the finite motion of a magneto-elastic rod reinforced with isotropic (spherical) or anisotropic (ellipsoidal) inclusions. The particles are assumed weakly and uniformly magnetised, rigid and firmly embedded into the…
Reluctance actuators are preferred for high-precision applications. Due to resistive losses in the coils, the accuracy of this type of actuator will reduce in quasi-static operation mode within a vacuum environment. By using soft permanent…
Solid state actuators (piezoelectric, ferroelectric, ...) deform under an external field, and have found many applications. They respond fast, but their mechanical deformations are very small. There is a need for soft actuators, giving…
We propose a theory which describes the mechanical behaviour of magneto-sensitive elastomers (MSEs) under a uniform external magnetic field. We focus on the MSEs with isotropic spatial distribution of magnetic particles. A mechanical model…
Macroscale robotic systems have demonstrated great capabilities of high speed, precise, and agile functions. However, the ability of soft robots to perform complex tasks, especially in centimeter and millimeter scale, remains limited due to…
Embedding magnetic colloidal particles in an elastic polymer matrix leads to smart soft materials that can reversibly be addressed from outside by external magnetic fields. We discover a pronounced nonlinear superelastic stress-strain…
Colloidal magnetic particles embedded in an elastic polymer matrix constitute a smart material called ferrogel. It responds to an applied external magnetic field by changes in elastic properties, which can be exploited for various…
We study the lubrication of fluid-immersed soft interfaces and show that elastic deformation couples tangential and normal forces and thus generates lift. We consider materials that deform easily, due to either geometry (e.g. a shell) or…
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…
The interaction of a thin viscous film with an elastic sheet results in coupling of pressure and deformation, which can be utilized as an actuation mechanism for surface deformations in a wide range of applications, including microfluidics,…
A dielectric elastomer whose edges are held fixed will buckle, given sufficient applied voltage, resulting in a nontrivial out-of-plane deformation. We study this situation numerically using a nonlinear elastic model which decouples two of…
We investigate theoretically the collective dynamics of soft active particles living in a viscous fluid. We focus on a minimal model for active but non-motile particles consisting of $N>1$ elastic dimers deformed by active stresses and…
Soft continuum robots achieve complex deformation through elastic equilibrium, making their reachable motions governed jointly by structural design and actuation-induced mechanics. This work develops a general formulation that integrates…
Ferrogels, i.e., hydrogels loaded with magnetic nanoparticles, have the ability to deform in external magnetic fields. The precise shape of deformation and the alignment of the gel in the field, however, depend on the interplay of several…