Design, manufacturing and applications of small-scale magnetic soft robots

Eshaghi, Mehdi; Ghasemi, Mohsen; Khorshidi, Korosh

doi:10.1016/j.eml.2021.101268

Cited by 59 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 202 publications

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“…Smart actuators and sensors are based on the deformation that results from the internal torques [8,38,43,41,58,80,87,83,73]. Soft robotics, namely as bioengineering applications, are remotely actuated to perform complex and repeatable movements [19,20,22,30,35,43,45,47,55,56,77,76,86]. Also, hMREs have been used as multifunctional shape-changing structures, e.g., metamaterials and self-healing structures [29,42,48,53,68,16] and for industrial applications such as damping systems and electrical machines [1,52].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of soft and hard magnetic particles on the mechanical performance of ultra-soft magnetorheological elastomers

Moreno-Mateos

López-Donaire

Hossain

et al. 2022

Smart Mater. Struct.

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Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) mechanically respond to external magnetic stimuli by changing their mechanical properties and/or changing their shape. Recent studies have shown the great potential of MREs when manufactured with an extremely soft matrix and soft-magnetic particles. Under the application of an external magnetic field, such MREs present significant mechanical stiffening, and when the magnetic field is off, they show a softer response, being these alternative states fully reversible. Although soft-magnetic particles are suitable for their high magnetic susceptibility, they require the magnetic actuation to remain constant in order to achieve the magneto-mechanical stiffening. Here, we present an alternative solution based on hard-magnetic MREs to provide stiffening responses that can be sustained along time without the need of keeping the external magnetic field on. To this end, we manufacture novel extremely soft hard-magnetic MREs (stiffness in the order of 1~kPa) and characterise them under magneto-mechanical shear and confined magnetic expansion deformation modes, providing a comparison framework with the soft-magnetic counterparts. The extremely soft nature of the matrix allows for easily activating the magneto-mechanical couplings under external magnetic actuation. In this regard, we provide a novel approach by setting the magnetic actuation below the fully magnetic saturating field. In addition, free deformation tests provide hints on the microstructural transmission of torques from the hard-magnetic particles to the viscoelastic carrier matrix, resulting in macroscopic geometrical effects and complex functional morphological changes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of soft and hard magnetic particles on the mechanical performance of ultra-soft magnetorheological elastomers

Moreno-Mateos

López-Donaire

Hossain

et al. 2022

Smart Mater. Struct.

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“…Another possibility is the Dielectric Electroactive Polymers which was applied to build a gripped driven by high electric field [ 19 ]. In the work [ 20 , 21 ] the magnetic soft actuators are summarized to build the milli-, micro- and nanoscale soft devices. The soft magnetic grippers are developed with application of soft permanent magnets and magnetorheologicial fluids [ 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design, Fabrication and Analysis of Magnetorheological Soft Gripper

Bernat

Gajewski

Kapela

et al. 2022

Sensors

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The magnetorheological elastomer is promising material for applications in soft robotics. Its properties like reactive to external magnetic field and softness allow to construct an attractive devices. This work presents a construction of soft gripper assembled with magnetorheological elastomers. The work describes the detailed molding process of magnetorheological elastomers. Further, the electromechanical properties of magnetorheological elastomers are shown using a simple beam. Finally, the soft gripper is constructed and analyzed with the series of experiments.

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“…Of the different actuation strategies for the miniature soft robots, the use of a magnetic field has been one of the most common due to its combined advantages of untethered and spatiotemporal control, rapid response, low cost, and relative biosafety. − To enable magnetism to steer the motion and locomotion of the soft robots, the most popular fabrication technique is to blend micro- or nanoscale magnetic media (usually particles or wires) into soft polymer matrices (e.g., elastomers and gels) and then shape and solidify the composites together. ,,,,− ,,,,,− , During the blending process, the spatial distribution/orientation and magnetization profile of the media are controlled and programmed inside the matrix to facilitate the generation of desired actuation force/torque upon applying external magnetic field. In this way, the obtained magnetic soft robots can only achieve a limited range of locomotion modes and the overall dexterity is restricted due to the permanently determined material properties (e.g., the magnetization profiles) once programmed and solidified. ,,− There have been a few efforts to achieve reprogrammable actuation for the soft robots, − such efforts, however, are usually accompanied with multiple processing and/or actuating steps (e.g., heating magnetic materials above the Curie temperature and then reorienting the magnetic domains during cooling − ,, ) and cannot be extended to a more general material system. Besides, existing manufacturing techniques for the magnetic soft robots, such as multimaterial 3D/4D printing, ,,,, soft lithography, ,,,,, and mold casting, ,,,,,, usually apply to a relatively large scale (millimeters and above).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aligned Magnetic Nanocomposites for Modularized and Recyclable Soft Microrobots

Shui

Wang

2022

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Creating reconfigurable and recyclable soft microrobots that can execute multimodal locomotion has been a challenge due to the difficulties in material processing and structure engineering at a small scale. Here, we propose a facile technique to manufacture diverse soft microrobots (∼100 μm in all dimensions) by mechanically assembling modular magnetic microactuators into different three-dimensional (3D) configurations. The module is composed of a cubic micropillar supported on a square substrate, both made of elastomer matrix embedded with prealigned magnetic nanoparticle chains. By directionally bonding the sides or backs of identical modules together, we demonstrate that assemblies from only two and four modules can execute a wide range of locomotion, including gripping microscale objects, crawling and crossing solid obstacles, swimming within narrow and tortuous microchannels, and rolling along flat and inclined surfaces, upon applying proper magnetic fields. The assembled microrobots can additionally perform pick–transfer–place and cargo-release tasks at the microscale. More importantly, like the game of block-building, the microrobots can be disassembled back to separate modules and then reassembled to other configurations as demanded. The present study not only provides a versatile and economic manufacturing technique for reconfigurable and recyclable soft microrobots, enabling unlimited design space for diverse robotic locomotion from limited materials and module structures, but also extends the functionality and dexterity of existing soft robots to microscale that should facilitate practical applications at such small scale.

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Design, manufacturing and applications of small-scale magnetic soft robots

Cited by 59 publications

References 202 publications

Effects of soft and hard magnetic particles on the mechanical performance of ultra-soft magnetorheological elastomers

Effects of soft and hard magnetic particles on the mechanical performance of ultra-soft magnetorheological elastomers

Design, Fabrication and Analysis of Magnetorheological Soft Gripper

Aligned Magnetic Nanocomposites for Modularized and Recyclable Soft Microrobots

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