Light-driven lattice soft microrobot with multimodal locomotion

Mingduo Zhang, Yuncheng Liu, Chunsan Deng, Xuhao Fan, Zexu Zhang, Shaoxi Shi, Fayu Chen, Huace Hu, Songyan Xue, Leimin Deng, Lige Liu, Tao Sun, Hui Gao and Wei Xiong ()
Additional contact information
Mingduo Zhang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Yuncheng Liu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Chunsan Deng: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Xuhao Fan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Zexu Zhang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Shaoxi Shi: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Fayu Chen: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Huace Hu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Songyan Xue: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Leimin Deng: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Lige Liu: State Key Laboratory of High End Heavy Load Robots
Tao Sun: State Key Laboratory of High End Heavy Load Robots
Hui Gao: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Wei Xiong: Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Untethered microrobots hold significant promise in fields such as bionics, biomedicine, and micromechanics. However, replicating the diverse movements of natural microorganisms in artificial microrobots presents a considerable challenge. This paper introduces a laser-based approach that utilizes lattice metamaterials to enhance the deformability of hydrogel-based microrobots, resulting in untethered light-driven lattice soft microrobots (LSMR). Constructed from poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-single-walled carbon nanotubes (PNIPAM-SWNT) hydrogels and a truncated octahedron lattice structure, the LSMR benefits from reduced relative density, which increases flexibility and accelerates light-driven deformation. By employing sequential laser scanning, the LSMR achieves various locomotion modes, including linear peristalsis, in situ rotation, and hopping, through adjustments in scanning frequency, trajectory, and laser power. The LSMR achieves a continuous in situ rotation speed of 29.38°/s, nearly 30 times faster than previous studies, and exhibits a peristaltic locomotion speed of 15.15 μm/s (0.14 body lengths per second). The LSMR can autonomously perform programmed motions under closed-loop feedback control and navigate through narrow openings as small as 75% of its resting width by actively deforming. Compared to a solid microrobot, the lattice microrobot requires only one-sixth of the laser energy to achieve three times the motion speed, under otherwise identical conditions. These advancements mark a significant leap forward in the design and functionality of light-driven soft microrobots, offering promising avenues for future research in biomedicine, bionics, and micromechanical engineering.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62676-z 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_s41467-025-62676-z

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62676-z

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 ().