Light-steered locomotion of muscle-like hydrogel by self-coordinated shape change and friction modulation

Qing Li Zhu, Cong Du, Yahao Dai, Matthias Daab, Marian Matejdes, Josef Breu, Wei Hong (), Qiang Zheng and Zi Liang Wu ()
Additional contact information
Qing Li Zhu: Zhejiang University
Cong Du: Zhejiang University
Yahao Dai: Zhejiang University
Matthias Daab: University of Bayreuth
Marian Matejdes: University of Bayreuth
Josef Breu: University of Bayreuth
Wei Hong: Southern University of Science and Technology
Qiang Zheng: Zhejiang University
Zi Liang Wu: Zhejiang University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Many creatures have the ability to traverse challenging environments by using their active muscles with anisotropic structures as the motors in a highly coordinated fashion. However, most artificial robots require multiple independently activated actuators to achieve similar purposes. Here we report a hydrogel-based, biomimetic soft robot capable of multimodal locomotion fueled and steered by light irradiation. A muscle-like poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) nanocomposite hydrogel is prepared by electrical orientation of nanosheets and subsequent gelation. Patterned anisotropic hydrogels are fabricated by multi-step electrical orientation and photolithographic polymerization, affording programmed deformations. Under light irradiation, the gold-nanoparticle-incorporated hydrogels undergo concurrent fast isochoric deformation and rapid increase in friction against a hydrophobic substrate. Versatile motion gaits including crawling, walking, and turning with controllable directions are realized in the soft robots by dynamic synergy of localized shape-changing and friction manipulation under spatiotemporal light stimuli. The principle and strategy should merit designing of continuum soft robots with biomimetic mechanisms.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18801-1 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:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18801-1

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18801-1

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 ().