A programmable powerful and ultra-fast water-driven soft actuator inspired by the mutable collagenous tissue of the sea cucumber
Autor: | Andrew Choi, Dong Sung Kim, Hyeonseok Han |
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Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
0303 health sciences
Materials science Renewable Energy Sustainability and the Environment Soft actuator Soft robotics Mechanical engineering Stiffness 02 engineering and technology General Chemistry 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology Water based 03 medical and health sciences Robustness (computer science) medicine General Materials Science Ultra fast medicine.symptom 0210 nano-technology Actuator Elastic modulus 030304 developmental biology |
Zdroj: | Journal of Materials Chemistry A. 9:15937-15947 |
ISSN: | 2050-7496 2050-7488 |
Popis: | The sea cucumber evolved to bear mutable collagenous tissue (MCT) that enables its elastic modulus to change by a factor of 10 within a few seconds. It does this by controlling the amount of chemical regulator released, which can subsequently form or break hydrogen bonds within the MCT. Although existing water-driven, self-operating, soft actuators have great potential for soft robotics, they remain fragile and slow; ergo, their range of application remains modest. Inspired by MCT, we introduce a programmable, powerful, and ultra-fast water-driven self-operating soft actuator exerting an actuation force of approximately 2 N with an actuation speed of approximately 3 s−1 in 80 °C water based on the dramatic stiffness alteration of bulk poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel. This actuator also exhibits outstanding robustness by preserving its original shape over multiple cycles of highly strained (300%) actuations under harsh environments. A simple modulation of cross-linker concentration with its dimensional adjustment enabled the precise tuning of not only the actuation force but also the actuation speed in a wide range. Thus, the soft robotic gripper was able to perform a myriad of intricate tasks such as capturing a fragile object, acting as a biomedical appliance, and closing a large wound with uniform appropriate forces. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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