An artificial aquatic polyp that wirelessly attracts, grasps, and releases objects

Abstract

The development of light-responsive materials has captured scientific attention and advanced the development of wirelessly driven terrestrial soft robots. Marine organisms trigger inspiration to expand the paradigm of untethered soft robotics into aqueous environments. However, this expansion toward aquatic soft robots is hampered by the slow response of most light-driven polymers to low light intensities and by the lack of controlled multishape deformations. Herein, we present a surface-anchored artificial aquatic coral polyp composed of a magnetically driven stem and a light-driven gripper. Through magnetically driven motion, the polyp induces stirring and attracts suspended targets. The light-responsive gripper is sensitive to low light intensities and has programmable states and rapid and highly controlled actuation, allowing the polyp to capture or release targets on demand. The artificial polyp demonstrates that assemblies of stimuli-responsive materials in water utilizing coordinated motion can perform tasks not possible for single-component devices.

Direct Ink Writing of a Light‐Responsive Underwater Liquid Crystal Actuator with Atypical Temperature‐Dependent Shape Changes

“…If the thermal contribution to the back isomerization of the azobenzene moieties ( cis – trans ) is absent, as water acts as a heat sink, this might result in an overall higher cis ‐isomer population, hence in a larger actuation upon irradiation underwater in comparison with air. [ 22,38,39 ] Drag forces in water were not observed to have a negative influence on the actuation amplitude.…”

Photodeformable Liquid Crystalline Polymers Containing Functional Additives: Toward Photomanipulatable Intelligent Soft Systems

“…A very recent study has demonstrated that the integration of two different stimuli‐responsive materials, a flexible magnetic polydimethylsiloxane pillar as the magnetically driven stem and a photoresponsive LCP as the light‐controlled gripper, can be utilized to design the surface‐anchored artificial aquatic coral polyp, to mimic the sophisticated motions of the marine organism in water. [ 74 ] The pseudopolyp stirs to attract suspended targets which is driven by the magnetic fields, and captures or releases the targets under the control of light. These intelligent soft systems with coordinated functions and motions can perform tasks not possible for single‐component devices based on conventional LCPs or other functional materials.…”

Optical fibre taper-enabled waveguide photoactuators

“…Soft actuators, which are capable of converting external stimuli to the desired shape changes or mechanical movements, can provide safe, comfortable and exible human-machine interaction 1 , and hold great potential in many cutting-edge applications, such as soft robots [2][3][4][5] , arti cial muscles 6-8 , biomimetic propellers [9][10][11][12] and soft grippers [13][14][15] . Various soft actuators driven by different stimuli including magnetic elds 16,17 , electric elds 1,18,19 , temperature 20,21 , humidity 15,22 and light have been widely reported.…”

“…Besides, the intensity of free-space light may decrease signi cantly during long-distance transport, especially for the environment with strong absorption and scattering 9,13 . Moreover, for the free-space light-driven actuators to execute locomotion or handle objects, the control light generally needs to intentionally follow the motion of the actuator 1 , which vastly restricts the maneuverability and convenience.…”