Miniaturized Swimming Soft Robot with Complex Movement Actuated and Controlled by Remote Light Signals

Abstract

Powering and communication with micro robots to enable complex functions is a long-standing challenge as the size of robots continues to shrink. Physical connection of wires or components needed for wireless communication are complex and limited by the size of electronic and energy storage devices, making miniaturization of robots difficult. To explore an alternative solution, we designed and fabricated a micro soft swimming robot with both powering and controlling functions provided by remote light, which does not carry any electronic devices and batteries. In this approach, a polymer film containing azobenzene chromophore which is sensitive to ultra-violet (UV) light works as “motor”, and the UV light and visible light work as “power and signal lines”. Periodically flashing UV light and white light drives the robot flagellum periodically to swing to eventually push forward the robot in the glass tube filled with liquid. The gripper on robot head can be opened or closed by lights to grab and carry the load. This kind of remotely light-driven approach realizes complex driving and controlling of micro robotic structures, making it possible to design and fabricate even smaller robots. It will have great potential among applications in the micro machine and robot fields.

A Light‐Powered Ultralight Tensegrity Robot with High Deformability and Load Capacity

“…As shown in Figure S14 and Movie S4 in the Supporting Information, the tensegrity robot built in the current work can be tightly packed under compression and completely recover to its initial state after the compression is removed, which is highly desired for the applications in space engineering. [10,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] As we can see from Figure 3B, although the tensegrity robot constructed in the current work is highly deformable, its load capacity is much higher than many other soft-bodied robots and also hard robots of similar weight. Compared to conventional hard robots, the load-carrying ability of soft-bodied robots are often too low.…”

Multiresponsive actuators based on modified electrospun films

“…As a key part, so actuators, which respond to applied external stimuli such as thermal, 7 light, [8][9][10][11] pressure, 12-14 chemical, 15,16 electric 17-20 and humidity [21][22][23][24][25] or magnetic elds, [26][27][28] have been explored for biomimetic applications. 10,16,22,24 Among various actuating structures, bilayer structures have been widely used to convert dimensional changes into bending motions. [1][2][3][4][5][6] A bilayer system typically consists of an active layer that contracts or expands in response to an external stimulus and a passive layer that remains intact.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] A bilayer system typically consists of an active layer that contracts or expands in response to an external stimulus and a passive layer that remains intact. [29][30][31] Active-layer materials are mainly based on materials such as gels, 8,15,16 paper, 20,32 silver nanowires (AgNWs), 22,33 carbon nanotubes (CNTs), [34][35][36][37] and graphene and its derivatives. [9][10][11][17][18][19]38,39 However, the manufacturing and preparation processes for some of the materials are complex, or their cost is relatively high.…”

Mechatronic Design and Manufacturing of the Intelligent Robotic Fish for Bio-Inspired Swimming Modes

“…suggested a solution to minimize a swimming robot by using polymer film works as motor. A soft micro robot was fabricated with this type of remote light-driven approach, and it held future promise in the areas of micro-machines and robots [30].…”