Motion design of a starfish-shaped gel robot made of electro-active polymer gel

Otake, Mihoko; Kagami, Yoshiharu; Inaba, Masayuki; Inoue, H.

doi:10.1016/s0921-8890(02)00243-9

Cited by 103 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Soft robots are machines fabricated from compliant materials (polymers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] , elastomers [1] , hydrogels [9,10] , granules [11] ); they can operate with several different modes of actuation (i.e., pneumatic [1,5,[11][12][13] , electrical [7,[14][15][16][17][18] , chemical [12,19,20] ), and their motion can be either fast (>1 Hz) [9,12,14] or slow (<0.1 Hz) [1,21] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

Mosadegh

Polygerinos

Keplinger

et al. 2014

Adv Funct Materials

1,281

827

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Soft robots actuated by pressurization and inflation of a pneumatic network (a "pneunet") of small channels in elastomeric materials are appealing for their ability to produce sophisticated motions with simple controls. Although current designs of pneu-nets achieve motion with large amplitudes, they do so relatively slowly (that is, over seconds). This paper describes a new design for pneu-nets that reduces the amount of gas that must be transported for inflation of the pneu-net, and thus increases its speed of actuation. A simple actuator can bend from a linear shape to a quasi-circular shape in 50 milliseconds when pressurized at ΔP = 345 kPa. At high rates of pressurization and inflation, the path along which the actuator bends depends on this rate. When inflated fully, the channels and chambers of this new pneu-net design experience only one-tenth the change in volume of that required for a motion of equal amplitude using the previous design. This small change in volume requires comparably low levels of strain in the material at maximum amplitudes of actuation, and commensurately low rates of fatigue and failure. This actuator can operate over a million cycles without significant degradation of performance. This design for soft robotic actuators combines high rates of actuation with high reliability of the actuator, and opens new areas of application for them.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

Mosadegh

Polygerinos

Keplinger

et al. 2014

Adv Funct Materials

1,281

827

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show abstract

“…[18] EAP gels have been used to fabricate gel robots that changes shape under the influence of an external electric field. For example Otake et al (2002) developed a robot in the shape of a starfish that used an EAP gel to turn over on application of electric fields. [19] Both EAPs and ICPF suffer, however, from shortcomings that make their extensive use in soft robots unlikely: For example, many ionic EAPs work only in aqueous media, [20] conjugated polymers and ionic polymer-metal composites have short lifecycles due to creep and material degradation, [21] and EAP gels require very high voltage for maximum actuation (up to 150 MV/m).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example Otake et al (2002) developed a robot in the shape of a starfish that used an EAP gel to turn over on application of electric fields. [19] Both EAPs and ICPF suffer, however, from shortcomings that make their extensive use in soft robots unlikely: For example, many ionic EAPs work only in aqueous media, [20] conjugated polymers and ionic polymer-metal composites have short lifecycles due to creep and material degradation, [21] and EAP gels require very high voltage for maximum actuation (up to 150 MV/m). [22] Our initial work in soft robotics has demonstrated the usefulness of pneumatic networks (PneuNets)-fabricated in PDMS elastomer, using soft lithographic techniques highly developed in microfluidics-to actuate soft structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elastomeric Origami: Programmable Paper‐Elastomer Composites as Pneumatic Actuators

Martínez

Fish

Chen

et al. 2012

Adv Funct Materials

556

393

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The development of soft pneumatic actuators based on composites consisting of elastomers with embedded sheet or fiber structures (e.g., paper or fabric) that are flexible but not extensible is described. On pneumatic inflation, these actuators move anisotropically, based on the motions accessible by their composite structures. They are inexpensive, simple to fabricate, light in weight, and easy to actuate. This class of structure is versatile: the same principles of design lead to actuators that respond to pressurization with a wide range of motions (bending, extension, contraction, twisting, and others). Paper, when used to introduce anisotropy into elastomers, can be readily folded into 3D structures following the principles of origami; these folded structures increase the stiffness and anisotropy of the elastomeric actuators, while being light in weight. These soft actuators can manipulate objects with moderate performance; for example, they can lift loads up to 120 times their weight. They can also be combined with other components, for example, electrical components, to increase their functionality.

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“…In addition, stimuli-responsive polymer systems have been studied for many possible applications, such as soft actuators, chemical robots, microfluidics, medical devices, etc., because of their light weight, flexibility, low-noise operation, etc. [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Gel actuators have been considered for applications in biomimetic robots and soft actuators, because gels simultaneously have flexible bodies allowing volume changes as well as chemical-substance-sensing properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous Oscillation of Nonthermoresponsive Polymers and Gels Induced by the Belousov–Zhabotinsky Reaction

Hara

2013

Chemosensors

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This review introduces the self-oscillating behavior of two types of nonthermoresponsive polymer systems with Ru catalyst moieties for the BelousovZhabotinsky (BZ) reaction: one with a poly-vinylpyrrolidone (PVP) main chain, and the other with a poly(2-propenamide) (polyacrylamide) (PAM) main chain. The amplitude of the VP-based self-oscillating polymer chain and the activation energy for self-oscillation are hardly affected by the initial concentrations of the BZ substrates. The influences of the initial concentrations of the BZ substrates and the temperature on the period of the swelling-deswelling self-oscillation are examined in detail. Logarithmic plots of the period against the initial concentration of one BZ substrate, when the concentrations of the other two BZ substrates are fixed, show good linear relationships. The period of the swellingdeswelling self-oscillation decreases with increasing temperature, in accordance with the Arrhenius equation. The maximum frequency (0.5 Hz) of the poly(VP-co-Ru(bpy) 3 ) gel is 20 times that of the poly(NIPAAm-co-Ru(bpy) 3 ) gel. It is also demonstrated that the amplitude of the volume self-oscillation for the gel has a tradeoff with the self-oscillation period. In addition, this review reports the self-oscillating behavior of an AM-based self-oscillating polymer chain as compared to that of the VP-based polymer chain.

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Motion design of a starfish-shaped gel robot made of electro-active polymer gel

Cited by 103 publications

References 8 publications

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

Pneumatic Networks for Soft Robotics that Actuate Rapidly

Elastomeric Origami: Programmable Paper‐Elastomer Composites as Pneumatic Actuators

Autonomous Oscillation of Nonthermoresponsive Polymers and Gels Induced by the Belousov–Zhabotinsky Reaction

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