A highly stretchable hydrogel sensor for soft robot multi-modal perception

Abstract We present extensions to ChainQueen, an open source, fully differentiable material point method simulator for soft robotics. Previous work established ChainQueen as a powerful tool for inference, control, and co-design for soft robotics. We detail enhancements to ChainQueen, allowing for more efficient simulation and optimization and expressive co-optimization over material properties and geometric parameters. We package our simulator extensions in an easy-to-use, modular application programming interface (API) with predefined observation models, controllers, actuators, optimizers, and geometric processing tools, making it simple to prototype complex experiments in 50 lines or fewer. We demonstrate the power of our simulator extensions in over nine simulated experiments.

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Self-powered soft robot in the Mariana Trench

Nature ◽

10.1038/s41586-020-03153-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 591 (7848) ◽

pp. 66-71

Author(s):

Guorui Li ◽

Xiangping Chen ◽

Fanghao Zhou ◽

Yiming Liang ◽

Youhua Xiao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soft Robot ◽

Mariana Trench ◽

Self Powered

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Studies on flexible and highly stretchable sodium ion conducting blend polymer electrolytes with enhanced structural, thermal, optical, and electrochemical properties

Journal of Materials Science Materials in Electronics ◽

10.1007/s10854-021-06456-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mohd Sadiq ◽

Mohammad Moeen Hasan Raza ◽

Sujeet Kumar Chaurasia ◽

Mohammad Zulfequar ◽

Javid Ali

Keyword(s):

Electrochemical Properties ◽

Polymer Electrolytes ◽

Sodium Ion ◽

Highly Stretchable ◽

Ion Conducting ◽

Blend Polymer

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Development of a 3D Printable and Highly Stretchable Ternary Organic-Inorganic Nanocomposite Hydrogel

Journal of Materials Chemistry B ◽

10.1039/d1tb00484k ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Chen Hu ◽

Malik Haider ◽

Lukas Hahn ◽

Mengshi Yang ◽

Robert Luxenhofer

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Properties ◽

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Nanocomposite Hydrogel ◽

Highly Stretchable ◽

Manufacturing Techniques ◽

Advanced Applications

Hydrogels that can be processed with additive manufacturing techniques and concomitantly possess favorable mechanical properties are interesting for many advanced applications. However, the development of novel ink materials with high...

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Tunable and Nacre‐Mimetic Multifunctional Electronic Skins for Highly Stretchable Contact‐Noncontact Sensing

Small ◽

10.1002/smll.202100542 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 2100542

Author(s):

Kangkang Zhou ◽

Wangjiehao Xu ◽

Yunfei Yu ◽

Wei Zhai ◽

Zuqing Yuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Highly Stretchable

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Highly Stretchable, Tough, Resilient, and Antifatigue Hydrogels Based on Multiple Hydrogen Bonding Interactions Formed by Phenylalanine Derivatives

Biomacromolecules ◽

10.1021/acs.biomac.0c01788 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jing Yu ◽

Kai Xu ◽

Xiaojing Chen ◽

Xiaodan Zhao ◽

Yuxuan Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hydrogen Bonding ◽

Hydrogen Bonding Interactions ◽

Highly Stretchable ◽

Multiple Hydrogen Bonding

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Ultrarobust, tough and highly stretchable self-healing materials based on cartilage-inspired noncovalent assembly nanostructure

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-021-21577-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yuyan Wang ◽

Xin Huang ◽

Xinxing Zhang

Keyword(s):

Spider Silk ◽

Self Healing ◽

High Toughness ◽

Healing Efficiency ◽

Strong Interfacial Interaction ◽

Highly Stretchable ◽

Noncovalent Bonds ◽

Actuation Devices ◽

Noncovalent Bonding ◽

Polyurethane Matrix

AbstractSelf-healing materials integrated with excellent mechanical strength and simultaneously high healing efficiency would be of great use in many fields, however their fabrication has been proven extremely challenging. Here, inspired by biological cartilage, we present an ultrarobust self-healing material by incorporating high density noncovalent bonds at the interfaces between the dentritic tannic acid-modified tungsten disulfide nanosheets and polyurethane matrix to collectively produce a strong interfacial interaction. The resultant nanocomposite material with interwoven network shows excellent tensile strength (52.3 MPa), high toughness (282.7 MJ m‒3, which is 1.6 times higher than spider silk and 9.4 times higher than metallic aluminum), high stretchability (1020.8%) and excellent healing efficiency (80–100%), which overturns the previous understanding of traditional noncovalent bonding self-healing materials where high mechanical robustness and healing ability are mutually exclusive. Moreover, the interfacical supramolecular crosslinking structure enables the functional-healing ability of the resultant flexible smart actuation devices. This work opens an avenue toward the development of ultrarobust self-healing materials for various flexible functional devices.

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Scalable fabrication of carbon materials based silicon rubber for highly stretchable e-textile sensor

Nanotechnology Reviews ◽

10.1515/ntrev-2020-0088 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 1183-1191

Author(s):

Xinlin Li ◽

Rixuan Wang ◽

Leilei Wang ◽

Aizhen Li ◽

Xiaowu Tang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Nanomaterials ◽

Electrical Performance ◽

Gauge Factor ◽

Multiwalled Carbon ◽

Silicon Rubber ◽

Smart Clothing ◽

Mechanical And Electrical Properties ◽

Highly Stretchable ◽

Textile Sensor ◽

High Level

AbstractDevelopment of stretchable wearable devices requires essential materials with high level of mechanical and electrical properties as well as scalability. Recently, silicone rubber-based elastic polymers with incorporated conductive fillers (metal particles, carbon nanomaterials, etc.) have been shown to the most promising materials for enabling both high electrical performance and stretchability, but the technology to make materials in scalable fabrication is still lacking. Here, we propose a facile method for fabricating a wearable device by directly coating essential electrical material on fabrics. The optimized material is implemented by the noncovalent association of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT), carbon black (CB), and silicon rubber (SR). The e-textile sensor has the highest gauge factor (GF) up to 34.38 when subjected to 40% strain for 5,000 cycles, without any degradation. In particular, the fabric sensor is fully operational even after being immersed in water for 10 days or stirred at room temperature for 8 hours. Our study provides a general platform for incorporating other stretchable elastic materials, enabling the future development of the smart clothing manufacturing.

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