| Abstrakt: |
This paper introduces an approach to fabricating lightweight, untethered soft robots capable of diverse biomimetic locomotion. Untethering soft robotics from electrical or pneumatic power remains one of the prominent challenges within the field. The development of functional untethered soft robotic systems hinges heavily on mitigating their weight; however, the conventional weight of pneumatic network actuators (pneu-nets) in soft robots has hindered untethered operations. To address this challenge, we developed film-balloon (FiBa) modules that drastically reduced the weight of soft actuators. FiBa modules combine transversely curved polymer thin films and three-dimensionally printed pneumatic balloons to achieve varied locomotion modes. These lightweight FiBa modules serve as building blocks to create untethered soft robots mimicking natural movement strategies. These modules substantially reduce overall robot weight, allowing the integration of components such as pumps, valves, batteries, and control boards, thereby enabling untethered operation. FiBa modules integrated with electronic components demonstrated four bioinspired modes of locomotion, including turtle-inspired crawling, inchworm-inspired climbing, bat-inspired perching, and ladybug-inspired flying. Overall, our study offers an alternative tool for designing and customizing lightweight, untethered soft robots with advanced functionalities. The reduction of the weight of soft robots enabled by our approach opens doors to a wide range of applications, including disaster relief, space exploration, remote sensing, and search and rescue operations, where lightweight, untethered soft robotic systems are essential. Editor's summary: Many soft robots rely on external electrical or pneumatic power sources accompanied by a physical cumbersome tether limiting the robots' range. To achieve untethered operation, Ching et al. combined a three-dimensionally printed pneumatic balloon and a curved polymer film to form a soft actuator termed film-balloon, or FiBa, actuator. These bending actuators are substantially lighter than other pneumatic actuators and can be combined with onboard pneumatic pumps, batteries, and controllers for untethered operation. The versatility of these actuators is demonstrated in various biomimetic robot designs that can crawl, climb, perch, and fly. Untethered robots capable of complex modes of locomotion could prove useful in remote operations such as rescue missions and space exploration. —Melisa Yashinski [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
