Battery-free, wireless, and electricity-driven soft swimmer for water quality and virus monitoring

Abstract

Miniaturized mobile electronic system is an effective candidate for in situ exploration of confined spaces. However, realizing such system still faces challenges in powering issue, untethered mobility, wireless data acquisition, sensing versatility, and integration in small scales. Here, we report a battery-free, wireless, and miniaturized soft electromagnetic swimmer (SES) electronic system that achieves multiple monitoring capability in confined water environments. Through radio frequency powering, the battery-free SES system demonstrates untethered motions in confined spaces with considerable moving speed under resonance. This system adopts soft electronic technologies to integrate thin multifunctional bio/chemical sensors and wireless data acquisition module, and performs real-time water quality and virus contamination detection with demonstrated promising limits of detection and high sensitivity. All sensing data are transmitted synchronously and displayed on a smartphone graphical user interface via near-field communication. Overall, this wireless smart system demonstrates broad potential for confined space exploration, ranging from pathogen detection to pollution investigation.

Design and mechanism of photothermal soft actuators and their applications

“…Rapid actuation and precise control may lead to increased energy consumption and complexity. 25,26 Magnetic stimulus actuators are constrained by limited actuation ranges and reliance on an external magnetic field for operation, which might impede their portability and usability. Their actuation speeds are relatively slower and often vulnerable to interference from external magnetic fields.…”