Natural alginate fiber-based actuator driven by water or moisture for energy harvesting and smart controller applications

Wen, Wang; Xiang, Chenxue; Liu, Qiongzhen; Li, Mufang; Zhong, Weibing; Yan, Kang; Wang, Dong

doi:10.1039/c8ta08064j

Cited by 66 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Wang et al prepared a natural alginate fiber actuator (Figure 10b). [138] When contacted with water or moisture, the fiber underwent reversible contraction and rotation. The rotation of the fiber controlled the openingclosing motion of the fabric stomas.…”

Section: Smart Clothes For Human Assistance and Augmentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functional Fibers and Fabrics for Soft Robotics, Wearables, and Human–Robot Interface

2020

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Fiber that has been known for thousands of years for textile engineering, is a kind of thin 1D material with large length-diameter ratio and softness. Fiber can be further processed into 1D or 3D yarns and 2D or 3D fabrics and can be subjected to wellestablished textile manufacturing techniques, such as dyeing, twisting, sewing, knitting, weaving, braiding, etc. [1] As commercially available material, fabric has been widely used for clothing, bedding, or furniture. Such wide-adoption demonstrates fabrics/textiles to be important and adaptable as daily useable material due to their merits of protection, breathability, comfort, and durability. [2] In recent years, novel smart responsive functions are desirable to be implemented on fibers and fabrics for seamless integrations of actuators, sensors, power sources, etc., to realize the robotic fibers/fabric-based manipulators and human-robot interfaces. These emerging responsive fibers/ fabrics are desirable to offer programmable functions, actuations, perception and capable of building an intuitive and dynamic collaborative scenarios with human, promising in enabling applications such as remote operation, human motion assistance, human perception, health monitoring and biomedical detection and therapy. [3][4][5] It is an attractive concept that the future human-robot interfaces could be embodied in familiar forms for humans such as textiles or clothes. Compared with the polymeric and elastomeric soft robotics, [6][7][8][9] fibers and fabrics are advantageous in applications of soft robotics and wearables for human. The devices could be programmable to have accurate designs in configuration and high performance by traditional manufacturing processes of textile, applying twist to transform fibers into coils, yarns with hierarchical structures, which could be further fabricated into fabrics or textiles by sewing, weaving, knitting, etc., techniques (Figure 1), guaranteeing good wearability, skin affinity, washability, and durability, which are intriguing and necessary for friendly robotics interactions with human.Soft robotics include three main components of actuators, sensors, and control modules with power sources. [10,11] Of which, actuators, sensors and power sources all could be designed in the form of fibers or fabrics, rendering facile assembly, and integration by interlocking. [12] Common actuations can be Soft robotics inspired by the movement of living organisms, with excellent adaptability and accuracy for accomplishing tasks, are highly desirable for efficient operations and safe interactions with human. With the emerging wearable electronics, higher tactility and skin affinity are pursued for safe and user-friendly human-robot interactions. Fabrics interlocked by fibers perform traditional static functions such as warming, protection, and fashion. Recently, dynamic fibers and fabrics are favorable to deliver active stimulus responses such as sensing and actuating abilities for soft-robots and wearables. First, the responsive mechanisms of fiber/fabric actu...

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Section: Smart Clothes For Human Assistance and Augmentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Smart Clothes For Human Assistance and Augmentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Fibers and Fabrics for Soft Robotics, Wearables, and Human–Robot Interface

2020

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“…On the other hand, this stored loads can also lead to fast and reversible reaction of twisted PNFs. [62] Due to twisting, the fibers in the yarn structure got closer to each other, and this, in addition to increasing the surface interactions in the fibers, led to a reduction in the volume fraction of the air and an increase in the volume fraction of the fibers. This structure, in turn, could prevent the loss in mechanical energy because when the impact force applied, the higher volume fraction of fibers caused more piezoelectric fibers to be impacted, thus increased the piezoelectric response of the sample.…”

Section: Effect Of Twistmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Geometrical Parameters on Piezoresponse of Nanofibrous Wearable Piezoelectric Nanofabrics Under Low Impact Pressure

Forouzan

Yousefzadeh

Latifi

et al. 2020

Macro Materials & Eng

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Piezoelectric polymers are potential energizers for wearable electronics due to the possibility of developing their yarns for various textile products. The present study is aimed at understanding the effect of geometrical parameters, viz., yarn linear density (measured as Tex), twist per meter (TPM), plying, as well as weft and warp density on the piezoelectric voltage of electrospun yarns of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer and poly[(vinylidene fluoride)‐co‐trifluoroethylene] [P(VDF‐TrFE)] copolymer. Yarns are developed by twisting and plying electrospun nanofibers and their mechanical and piezoelectric properties are systematically investigated. Relative advantages of the yarns of the copolymer with respect to PVDF in both aligned and random fiber geometries are evaluated. The studies show that piezoresponse of the woven nanogenerators can be enhanced by decreasing Tex and increasing the TPM, the plying number, and the fabric density. A record piezovoltage of ≈2.5 V is achieved through this work. The results of the present work can be used for the fabrication of flexible and breathable nanogenerators or sensors.

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“…When removing the water from the gel, the alginate gel fiber can transform from the wet state, with a smooth surface, to the stable torsional state, with a rough and wrinkled surface. These characteristics impart alginate fiber with a good water adsorption and desorption performance and moisture actuation . Hygroscopicity also results in the giant volume change of silk upon moisture absorption, indicating that silk would also be an optimal candidate for twist‐based actuators.…”

Section: Actuation Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible Actuators for Soft Robotics

Yang

et al. 2019

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Rigid robots have taken on a variety of automated manufacturing tasks and have made a huge contribution to industrial development; however, they are not suitable for further wearable applications due to their rigid and bulky structure, poor environmental adaptability, and low safety. Soft robots, which are mainly fabricated with flexible or elastomeric materials, can easily adjust to environmental changes and accomplish complex tasks, offering a new paradigm to achieve human-machine compliance. Soft robots do not replace rigid robots but add diverse features for softer robotic applications. In particular, the use of flexible actuators in robotic systems can realize certain intelligent functions, enrich soft robotic systems and migrate academic research to engineering applications. Currently, the application of flexible actuators in soft robotic fields is still at the embryonic stage. However, tremendous application spaces can be envisaged when combining flexible actuators with soft wearable robotics. Therefore, the current flexible actuators that rely on different external stimuli are addressed herein, and their materials, designs, and approaches suitable for soft robotic applications are highlighted. The application advancement and future perspective of flexible actuator prototypes toward various soft robotics are also discussed.

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Natural alginate fiber-based actuator driven by water or moisture for energy harvesting and smart controller applications

Abstract: Fiber-based actuator driven by water or moisture with excellent cyclic stability for energy harvesting and smart controller applications.

Cited by 66 publications

References 39 publications

Functional Fibers and Fabrics for Soft Robotics, Wearables, and Human–Robot Interface

Functional Fibers and Fabrics for Soft Robotics, Wearables, and Human–Robot Interface

Effect of Geometrical Parameters on Piezoresponse of Nanofibrous Wearable Piezoelectric Nanofabrics Under Low Impact Pressure

Flexible Actuators for Soft Robotics

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