Soft Robotics: Liquid Metal Based Soft Robotics: Materials, Designs, and Applications (Adv. Mater. Technol. 2/2019)

The field of soft robotics has attracted the interest of the medical community due to the ability of soft elastic materials to traverse the abnormal environment of the human body. However, sensing in soft robotics has been challenging due to the sensitivity of soft sensors to various loading conditions and the nonlinear signal responses that can arise under extreme loads. Ideally, soft sensors should provide a linear response under a specific loading condition and provide a different response for other loading directions. With these specifications in mind, our team created a soft elastomeric sensor designed to provide force feedback during cardiac catheter ablation surgery. Analytical and computational methods were explored to define a relationship between resistance and applied force for a semicircular, liquid metal filled channel in the soft elastomeric sensor. Pouillet’s Law is utilized to calculate the resistance based on the change in cross-sectional area resulting from various applied pressures. FEA simulations were created to simulate the deformation of the sensor under various loads. To confirm the validity of these simulations, the elastomer was modeled as a neo-Hookean material and the liquid metal was modeled as an incompressible fluid with negligible shear modulus under uniaxial compression. Results show a linearly proportional relationship between the resistance of the sensor and the application of a uniaxial force. Altering the direction of applied force results in a quadratic relationship between total resistance and the magnitude of force.

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Soft electrodes combining hydrogel and liquid metal

Soft Matter ◽

10.1039/c8sm00337h ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (17) ◽

pp. 3296-3303 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Tim Shay ◽

Orlin D. Velev ◽

Michael D. Dickey

Keyword(s):

Liquid Metal ◽

Liquid Metals ◽

Wearable Devices ◽

Soft Robotics

Liquid metals interfaced with hydrogels create soft, deformable electrodes for emerging wearable devices and soft robotics. This paper quantifies and tunes the impedance of this interface for use in ECG electrodes.

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Liquid metal robotics: a new category of soft robotics on the horizon

Science Bulletin ◽

10.1007/s11434-015-0800-5 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 60 (11) ◽

pp. 1047-1048 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jie Xu

Keyword(s):

Liquid Metal ◽

Soft Robotics

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Liquid‐Metal‐Enhanced Wire Mesh as a Stiffness Variable Material for Making Soft Robotics

Advanced Engineering Materials ◽

10.1002/adem.201900530 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 21 (10) ◽

pp. 1900530 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Bo Yuan ◽

Chenjia Zhao ◽

Xuyang Sun ◽

Jing Liu

Keyword(s):

Liquid Metal ◽

Wire Mesh ◽

Soft Robotics

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Stimulus-Driven Liquid Metal and Liquid Crystal Network Actuators for Programmable Soft Robotics

Materials Horizons ◽

10.1039/d1mh00623a ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pengfei Lv ◽

Xiao Yang ◽

Hari Krishna Bisoyi ◽

Hao Zeng ◽

Xuan Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystal ◽

Liquid Metal ◽

Soft Matter ◽

Soft Robotics ◽

Soft Robots ◽

Crystal Network ◽

Flexible Electronic

Sophisticated soft matter engineering has been endorsed as an emerging paradigm for developing untethered soft robots with built-in electronic functions and biomimetic adaptation capacities. However, the integration of flexible electronic...

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Gallium Oxide-Stabilized Oil in Liquid Metal Emulsions

Soft Matter ◽

10.1039/d1sm00982f ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Najam Ul Hassan Shah ◽

Wilson Kong ◽

Nathan Casey ◽

Shreyas Kanetkar ◽

Robert Yue-Sheng Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Energy Storage ◽

Liquid Metal ◽

Gallium Oxide ◽

Liquid Metals ◽

Soft Robotics ◽

Stretchable Electronics ◽

Thermal Interface Materials ◽

Thermal Interface ◽

Energy Storage Applications ◽

Interface Materials

Gallium based liquid metals (LM) have prospective biomedical, stretchable electronics, soft robotics, and energy storage applications, and are being widely adopted as thermal interface materials. The danger of gallium corroding...

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Self-sintering liquid metal ink with laponite for flexible electronics

Journal of Materials Chemistry C ◽

10.1039/d0tc06044e ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pengcheng Wu ◽

Lu-yu Zhou ◽

Shang Lv ◽

JianZhong Fu ◽

Yong He

Keyword(s):

Liquid Metal ◽

Flexible Electronics ◽

Soft Robotics ◽

Stretchable Electronics ◽

Self Powered ◽

Widespread Interest ◽

Liquid Metal Ink ◽

Flexible And Stretchable Electronics

Liquid-metal (LM)-based flexible and stretchable electronics have attracted widespread interest in soft robotics, self-powered devices and electronic skins. Although nanometerization can facilitate deposition and patterning of LMs onto substrates, subsequent...

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Soft and Deformable Sensors Based on Liquid Metals

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s19194250 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (19) ◽

pp. 4250 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Taeyeong Kim ◽

Dong-min Kim ◽

Bong Jae Lee ◽

Jungchul Lee

Keyword(s):

Liquid Metal ◽

Recent Literature ◽

Liquid Metals ◽

Major Constituent ◽

Soft Robotics ◽

Wearable Electronics ◽

Sensors And Actuators ◽

Electrically Conductive ◽

Conductive Materials ◽

Metal Sensing

Liquid metals are one of the most interesting and promising materials due to their electrical, fluidic, and thermophysical properties. With the aid of their exceptional deformable natures, liquid metals are now considered to be electrically conductive materials for sensors and actuators, major constituent transducers in soft robotics, that can experience and withstand significant levels of mechanical deformation. For the upcoming era of wearable electronics and soft robotics, we would like to offer an up-to-date overview of liquid metal-based soft (thus significantly deformable) sensors mainly but not limited to researchers in relevant fields. This paper will thoroughly highlight and critically review recent literature on design, fabrication, characterization, and application of liquid metal devices and suggest scientific and engineering routes towards liquid metal sensing devices of tomorrow.

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