Dual‐Responsive Soft Actuators with Integrated Sensing Function Based on 1T‐MoS₂ Composite

Abstract

Soft actuators can respond to electricity, [1][2][3][4] light, [5][6][7][8] heat, [9,10] and humidity [11,12] and produce mechanical deformation output. Owing to a wide range of applications in soft robots, [13] intelligent biomimetic devices, [14,15] biomedical sensing and diagnosis, [16] and wearable devices, [17] they have received more and more research interests recently. According to the external stimuli and actuation mechanism, soft actuators can be divided into many types, such as electrical-induced actuator, [1][2][3][4] optical-induced actuator, [5][6][7][8] magnetic actuator, [18] and so on. Among them, actuators driven by electrical voltage or light have been widely studied due to their unique characteristics. For the electrical-induced actuator, electrical energy has the advantages of simple operation, easy storage and utilization, and good controllability, whereas the light-induced actuator has unique features, including wireless actuation, remote control, and no contact with the sample. [19][20][21] Therefore, by combing the advantages of the two types of actuators, the application range and utilization convenience can be largely improved. For example, in microrobot applications, the power system it carries may be restricted due to the limited size of the microrobot. When the electricity is exhausted, the light energy can be supplied to drive the microrobot to continuously work. In space, the sunlight can be used as the driving source of the actuator, and the electric energy is used as the driving source of the actuator once it is in the dark environment, ensuring the normal operation of the actuator and save energy. However, most of the actuators studied only respond to one singe stimulus. It is still of great importance to fabricate actuators with highperformance and multistimuli response.Developing new types of materials with multistimuli responsive property is the key to achieve multistimuli responsive actuators. As a new type of 2D nanomaterials, transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) nanosheets have attracted enormous attention due to their excellent properties, including tunable bandgap, [22] excellent optical properties, high strength, [23] and so on, which makes them great potential in sensors, [24] batteries, [25] supercapactitors, energy storage and conversion, [26] and actuators. As one of the typical TMDs, molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) has good photothermal conversion characteristics.

Robotic Hair with Rich Sensation and Piloerection Functionalities Biomimicked by Stimuli‐Responsive Materials

“…The actuation magnitude can be modulated by the light intensity (Figure S9C, Supporting Information), and the performance compares favorably with other sensing actuators (see Table 2 ). [ 14,16,18–21,34,37–40 ] In addition to actuation, vis light also induces resistive changes as shown in Figure 2F. Here, upon illumination by vis light of ≈65 mW cm −2 for 5 s, the trilayer film bent by an angle change of ≈360° by the actuating strain of TMO/H layer at ≈−0.32% (see details in the Supporting Information), with a simultaneous Δ R / R of −4.5%.…”

A Review of Recent Advances in Electrically Driven Polymer‐Based Flexible Actuators: Smart Materials, Structures, and Their Applications

“…[114] Alternatively, Yao et al reported a programmable actuator by attaching stiff materials to the high CTE layer, as shown in Figure 5e. [113] In addition, there are many novel methods, such as the use of the anisotropic expansion of actuating materials (Figure 5f) [130] or multiresponse materials [131][132][133][134][135] to control the shape output.…”

A Machine Learning Empowered Shape Memory Alloy Gripper With Displacement-Force-Stiffness Self-Sensing

“…3) The self-sensing gripper allows sensing without extra external sensors; it can be programmed and miniaturized for specific tasks and applications. Ji et al [8] developed a composite film-based gripper that could bend as well as strain sensing. Bombara et al [9] used a twisted string actuator to achieve position self-sensing of the gripper.…”