Magnetoactive bistable soft actuators for programmable large shape transformations at low magnetic fields

Hao Wen, Zihao Shao, Yuxuan Sun, Chiyuan Ma, Feihong Xiang, Liangyu Xia, Xinhui Zhu, Xiaoxiang Li, Liang Li () and Quanliang Cao ()
Additional contact information
Hao Wen: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Zihao Shao: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Yuxuan Sun: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Chiyuan Ma: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Feihong Xiang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Liangyu Xia: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Xinhui Zhu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Xiaoxiang Li: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Liang Li: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Quanliang Cao: Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract As the demand for advanced actuation strategies in soft robotics and intelligent material systems grows, magnetoactive soft actuators have attracted increasing attention for their ability to achieve flexible shape transformations through remote and untethered control. However, existing designs typically rely on continuous high magnetic fields to generate large deformations, limiting both efficiency and applicability, especially under constrained boundary conditions. Here we report a hemispherical bistable soft actuator embedded with magnetic microparticles, which enables substantial shape changes under low-intensity pulsed magnetic torques and remains stable in two configurations without external fields. We analyze the relationship between design parameters and actuator performance to clarify the bistable mechanism, and show that the actuator can achieve a large shape change ratio exceeding 0.8 under magnetic fields below 20 mT. We further demonstrate its versatility through three applications: a high-efficiency soft pump with closed-loop fluid control, a reprogrammable metamaterial, and a variable-stiffness soft gripper.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64855-4 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_s41467-025-64855-4

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64855-4

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 ().