A fabrication strategy for millimeter-scale, self-sensing soft-rigid hybrid robots

Hun Chan Lee, Nash Elder, Matthew Leal, Sarah Stantial, Elenis Vergara Martinez, Sneha Jos, Hyunje Cho and Sheila Russo ()
Additional contact information
Hun Chan Lee: Boston University
Nash Elder: Boston University
Matthew Leal: Boston University
Sarah Stantial: Boston University
Elenis Vergara Martinez: Florida International University
Sneha Jos: Boston University
Hyunje Cho: Boston University
Sheila Russo: Boston University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Soft robots typically involve manual assembly of core hardware components like actuators, sensors, and controllers. This increases fabrication time and reduces consistency, especially in small-scale soft robots. We present a scalable monolithic fabrication method for millimeter-scale soft-rigid hybrid robots, simplifying the integration of core hardware components. Actuation is provided by soft-foldable polytetrafluoroethylene film-based actuators powered by ionic fluid injection. The desired motion is encoded by integrating a mechanical controller, comprised of rigid-flexible materials. The robot’s motion can be self-sensed using an ionic resistive sensor by detecting electrical resistance changes across its body. Our approach is demonstrated by fabricating three distinct soft-rigid hybrid robotic modules, each with unique degrees of freedom: translational, bending, and roto-translational motions. These modules connect to form a soft-rigid hybrid continuum robot with real-time shape-sensing capabilities. We showcase the robot’s capabilities by performing object pick-and-place, needle steering and tissue puncturing, and optical fiber steering tasks.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-51137-8 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-51137-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51137-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().