A bioinspired multilegged soft millirobot that functions in both dry and wet conditions

Lu, Haojian; Zhang, Mei; Yang, Yuanyuan; Huang, Qiang; Fukuda, Toshio; Wang, Zuankai; Shen, Yajing

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06491-9

Cited by 454 publications

(339 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Current soft medical robots based on bionics: A, a cable‐driven, soft endoscopic system for cardiac ablation inspired by trunks; B, an innovative surgical robot inspired by an octopus arm; C, a soft medical robot for drug delivery inspired by many‐legged creatures; D, a soft, wearable hand robot inspired by the human hand; E, a wearable robotic device for ankle‐foot rehabilitation inspired by the human foot and lower leg …”

Section: Bionics In Soft Medical Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Haojian et al developed a soft medical robot decorated with tapered feet structures for drug delivery in the human body and was inspired by the soft and elastic leg/ft structures of animals. This development was seamlessly integrated into bioinspired structures with soft materials (Figure C) . A silicon material called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was used to fabricate the robot body, which enabled it to be controlled by an electromagnetic force.…”

Section: Bionics In Soft Medical Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A review of recent advancements in soft and flexible robots for medical applications

Zhang

2020

Robotics Computer Surgery

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Background: Soft and flexible robots for medical applications are needed to change their flexibility over a wide range to perform tasks adequately. The mechanism and theory of flexibility has been a scientific issue and is of interest to the community. Methods: Recent advancements of bionics, flexible actuation, sensing, and intelligent control algorithms as well as tunable stiffness have been referenced when soft and flexible robots are developed. The benefits and limitations of these relevant studies and how they affect the flexibility are discussed, and possible research directions are explored. Results: The bionic materials and structures that demonstrate the potential capabilities of the soft medical robot flexibility are the fundamental guarantee for clinical medical applications. Flexible actuation that used to provide power, intelligent control algorithms which are the exact executors, and the wide range stiffness of the soft materials are the three important influence factors for soft medical robots. Conclusion: Some reasonable suggestions and possible solutions for soft and flexible medical robots are proposed, including novel materials, flexible actuation concepts with a built-in source of energy or power, programmable flexibility, and adjustable stiffness. K E Y W O R D S bionics, flexible actuation, sensing and intelligent control algorithm, soft and flexible robots, tunable stiffness 1 | INTRODUCTION The application of robots in the medical field dates back to a few decades ago, but the recent use of soft materials in medical robots has enabled new capabilities that create possibilities for medical treatments in which much safer human-robot interaction is preferred. 1-3 Soft medical robots are defined as soft and flexible electro-mechanical systems with high flexibility performing medical applications. Soft medical robots are multidisciplinary emerging technologies 4 such as materials science, bionics, mechanics, electronics, and computer science. At present, soft medical robots have been used for surgery, 5diagnosis, 6 rehabilitation, 7 prostheses, 8 artificial organs, 9 drug delivery 10 and many other medical applications. [11][12][13][14][15][16] The movements such as bending, torsion, extension, and contact operations 17 required high flexibility and deformability 18 of soft medical robots.Soft medical robots exhibit a range of degrees of flexibility during medical applications. In this paper, flexibility is used to describe the characteristics of soft medical robots that have a proper combination of stiffness and compliance and it is on the scientific level. Actually, flexibility reflects in three aspects: the variety of shape, the wide range of stiffness, and the adequate force applied. It is necessary for soft medical robots that it can change their flexibility degree over a wide range to perform tasks adequately. For example, there has certainly been a longterm demand in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) applications for soft medical robots that can move, deform, navigate narrow gaps, and int...

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Section: Bionics In Soft Medical Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Bionics In Soft Medical Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of recent advancements in soft and flexible robots for medical applications

Zhang

2020

Robotics Computer Surgery

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“…Material is crucial for the design of microrobots, which regulates their mechanical properties and further determines their functions. Smart materials, which can sense and react to external stimuli, such as temperature, pH, light, humidity, magnetism, and electric fields, are indispensable for fabricating untethered soft microrobots. However, almost all stimuli–response materials reported exclusively exhibit a monotonic dependence of swelling deformation with some specific stimulus.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encoding Smart Microjoints for Microcrawlers with Enhanced Locomotion

Chen

Huang

et al. 2020

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Usually, it is indispensable for traditional functional robots to use flexible joints that integrate sophisticated machinery and control systems to achieve precise operability and efficient mobility. At the microscale, however, the conventional design of functional joints is generally not suitable due to the limitation of the manufacturing process on such a tiny size. Herein, a strategy for the design of smart microjoints (SMJs) that undergo controllable active deformation by triggering a size‐dependent layer‐by‐layer sequential swelling effect on SMJs in response to external stimuli is developed. The optimal encoding of SMJs that enables microcrawlers to achieve superior crawling speed (0.15 body length s−1) and efficiency (1.1 body length per step), as well as controllable locomotion, is demonstrated, e.g., migration along/against the stimuli source or along a preplanned path. A path toward constructing soft actuators/robots at the microscale with high adaptability and controllability for broad engineering applications is offered.

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“…Passive arrays of branching structures have been formed with a three part mold for the purpose of passive locomotion and similar methods could be used to create artificial ciliary systems. Larger arrays of smaller scale cilia structures have been demonstrated using a variety of alternative fabrication strategies including molding in a sacrificial filter that is later dissolved, self‐assembly of magnetic particles, magnetic manipulation of rubber with embedded magnetic particles, and roll touch molding . Related work focused on ambulatory locomotion has also demonstrated the use of magnetic fields to form and later control large arrays of high aspect ratio structures from silicone filled with magnetic particles .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanically Programmable Dip Molding of High Aspect Ratio Soft Actuator Arrays

Becker

Chen

Wood

2020

Adv Funct Materials

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This work presents multiple methods of creating high aspect ratio fluidic soft actuators that can be formed individually or in large arrays via dip coating. Within this methodology, four strategies are provided to mechanically program the motion of these actuators, including the use of fiber inclusions, gravity, surface tension, and electric fields. The modular nature of this dip coating fabrication technique is inexpensive, easy to modify, and scalable. These techniques are used to demonstrate the fabrication of soft actuators with aspect ratios up to 200:1 and integrated arrays of up to 256 actuators. Furthermore, these methods have the potential to achieve higher aspect ratios and larger array sizes. Operating pressure, curvature, and curling strength tests reveal the design space in which fabrication parameters can be selected to tune the input and output parameters of soft bending actuators. An individual bending actuator made with these methods weighs between 0.15 and 0.5 g, can hold up to 2 N, and can be designed to work in groups to increase curling strength with distributed contact forces. Arrays of these actuators may be useful in atypical grasping and manipulation tasks, fluid manipulation, and locomotion.

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A bioinspired multilegged soft millirobot that functions in both dry and wet conditions

Cited by 454 publications

References 37 publications

A review of recent advancements in soft and flexible robots for medical applications

A review of recent advancements in soft and flexible robots for medical applications

Encoding Smart Microjoints for Microcrawlers with Enhanced Locomotion

Mechanically Programmable Dip Molding of High Aspect Ratio Soft Actuator Arrays

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