Related papers: Soft Electrothermal Meta-Actuator for Robust Multi…
Modular soft robots combine the strengths of two traditionally separate areas of robotics. As modular robots, they can show robustness to individual failure and reconfigurability; as soft robots, they can deform and undergo large shape…
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…
Vehicle power-trains use a variable transmission (multiple gear-ratios) to minimize motor size and maximize efficiency while meeting a wide-range of operating points. Robots could similarly benefit from variable transmission to save weight…
Strongly correlated insulators, such as Mott or charge-transfer insulators, exhibit a strong temperature dependence in their resistivity. Consequently, self-heating effects can lead to electrothermal instabilities in planar thin film…
In this study, we developed a UV-tape-assisted laser patterning (UT-Laser) technique that enables the simple transfer-based formation of wiring with line widths below 200 $\mu$m onto textile substrates. With the rapid advancement of…
Fluid-driven elastomeric actuators (FEAs) are among the most popular actuators in the emerging field of soft robotics. Intrinsically compliant, with continuum of motion, large strokes, little friction, and high power-to-weight ratio, they…
Legged robots constructed from soft materials are commonly claimed to demonstrate safer, more robust environmental interactions than their rigid counterparts. However, this motivating feature of soft robots requires more rigorous…
Inspired by the dexterous handling ability of an elephant's trunk, we propose a pneumatic actuator that generates diverse bending and extension motions in a flexible arm. The actuator consists of two flexible tubes. Each flexible tube is…
Impressive animal locomotion capabilities are mediated by the co-evolution of the skeletal morphology and muscular properties. Legged robot performance would also likely benefit from the co-optimization of actuators and leg morphology.…
Many soft robots struggle to produce dynamic motions with fast, large displacements. We develop a parallel 6 degree-of-freedom (DoF) Stewart-Gough mechanism using Handed Shearing Auxetic (HSA) actuators. By using soft actuators, we are able…
Remote temperature control can be obtained by a long-focus thermal lens that can focus heat fluxes into a spot far away from the back surface of the lens and create a virtual thermal source/sink in the background material, around which the…
Thermal diode, a type of device that allows heat to flow in one direction preferentially, can be employed in many thermal applications. However, if the mechanical compliance of the thermal diode is poor, which prevents its intimate contact…
Liquid crystal elastomers contract along their director on heating and recover on cooling, offering great potential as actuators and artificial muscles. If a flat sheet is programmed with a spatially varying director pattern, it will…
Soft growing robots are proposed for use in applications such as complex manipulation tasks or navigation in disaster scenarios. Safe interaction and ease of production promote the usage of this technology, but soft robots can be…
We propose a mechanically simple and cheap design for a series elastic actuator with controllable stiffness. Such characteristics are necessary for animals for running, jumping, throwing, and manipulation, yet in robots, variable stiffness…
Heat flux rotation has important significance in thermal protection since it can shield the heat energy from a selected direction. Combining with tailored metamaterials, transformation thermotics provides a powerful way to manipulate heat…
Robotic legs have bimodal operations: swing phases when the leg needs to move quickly in the air (high-speed, low-force) and stance phases when the leg bears the weight of the system (low-speed, high-force). Sizing a traditional…
Shape-changing interfaces are promising for users to change the physical properties of common objects. However, prevailing approaches of actuation devices require either professional equipment or materials that are not commonly accessible…
Soft robots, distinguished by their inherent compliance and continuum structures, present unique modeling challenges, especially when subjected to significant external loads such as gravity and payloads. In this study, we introduce an…
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…