Frequency-selective actuation of liquid crystalline elastomer actuators with radio-frequency

Yiwen Song (), Zefang Li, Mason Zadan, Jingxian Wang, Swarun Kumar () and Carmel Majidi ()
Additional contact information
Yiwen Song: Carnegie Mellon University
Zefang Li: Carnegie Mellon University
Mason Zadan: Carnegie Mellon University
Jingxian Wang: Carnegie Mellon University
Swarun Kumar: Carnegie Mellon University
Carmel Majidi: Carnegie Mellon University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Soft and miniaturized robots possess the capability to operate inside narrow, confined environments. However, powering soft robots inside these environments with on-board batteries or wired connections to external power supplies can significantly restrain their mobility. Similarly, wireless actuation approaches are constrained by near-field actuation, line-of-sight operation, or indiscriminate actuation of many actuators. To provide higher mobility for wireless soft robot to operate inside non-line-of-sight scenarios, we present a radio-frequency system that introduces frequency-selective actuation of liquid crystal elastomer actuators. We create liquid crystalline elastomer actuators with a low actuation temperature and embed them with conductive traces that resonate and heat by selected frequencies of radio-frequency excitation in the 2.40 GHz range. We further develop a wireless actuation platform that infers the wireless channel and beamforms towards the actuator to achieve efficient beamforming. Demonstrations show our system is capable of selectively actuating different actuators while the robot is in motion and obstructed by occlusions.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62313-9 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:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-62313-9

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62313-9

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 ().