Cutting the Cord: Progress in Untethered Soft Robotics and Actuators

MRS Advances ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (51-52) ◽  
pp. 2787-2804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Li ◽  
Nicholas A Ostrovsky-Snider ◽  
Metin Sitti ◽  
Fiorenzo G Omenetto
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Material Science ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Research Interest ◽  
Soft Robotics ◽  
Stimuli Responsive ◽  
New Materials ◽  
Real World Applications ◽  
Soft Actuators ◽  
Rigid Skeleton

AbstractIn recent decades, increasing research interest has shifted from traditional rigid skeleton robotics to flexible, shape-programmable, environmentally adaptive and stimuli-responsive “soft robotics”. Within this discipline, soft-robots capable of untethered and/or remote-controlled operation are of particular interest given their utility for actuation in complex situations with larger range of mobility and higher degrees of freedom. The use of new materials and the development of advanced fabrication techniques enable better performance and expand the utility of such soft actuators, moving them towards real-world applications. This review outlines some recent advances in untethered soft robotics and actuators to illustrate the promise of these applications at the interface of material science and device engineering.

scholarly journals Programmable Stimuli-Responsive Actuators for Complex Motions in Soft Robotics: Concept, Design and Challenges

Actuators ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Gilles Decroly ◽  
Antoniya Toncheva ◽  
Loïc Blanc ◽  
Jean-Marie Raquez ◽  
Thomas Lessinnes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Science ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Soft Materials ◽  
Soft Robotics ◽  
Concept Design ◽  
Stimuli Responsive ◽  
Responsive Materials ◽  
Stimulus Responsive ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Soft Actuators

During the last years, great progress was made in material science in terms of concept, design and fabrication of new composite materials with conferred properties and desired functionalities. The scientific community paid particular interest to active soft materials, such as soft actuators, for their potential as transducers responding to various stimuli aiming to produce mechanical work. Inspired by this, materials engineers today are developing multidisciplinary approaches to produce new active matters, focusing on the kinematics allowed by the material itself more than on the possibilities offered by its design. Traditionally, more complex motions beyond pure elongation and bending are addressed by the robotics community. The present review targets encompassing and rationalizing a framework which will help a wider scientific audience to understand, sort and design future soft actuators and methods enabling complex motions. Special attention is devoted to recent progress in developing innovative stimulus-responsive materials and approaches for complex motion programming for soft robotics. In this context, a challenging overview of the new materials as well as their classification and comparison (performances and characteristics) are proposed. In addition, the great potential of soft transducers are outlined in terms of kinematic capabilities, illustrated by the related application. Guidelines are provided to design actuators and to integrate asymmetry enabling motions along any of the six basic degrees of freedom (translations and rotations), and strategies towards the programming of more complex motions are discussed. As a final note, a series of manufacturing methods are described and compared, from molding to 3D and 4D printing. The review ends with a Perspectives section, from material science and microrobotic points of view, on the soft materials’ future and close future challenges to be overcome.

scholarly journals Deep Reinforcement Learning for Soft, Flexible Robots: Brief Review with Impending Challenges

Robotics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarthak Bhagat ◽  
Hritwick Banerjee ◽  
Zion Ho Tse ◽  
Hongliang Ren
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Real World ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Imitation Learning ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Soft Robotics ◽  
Flexible Robots ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Embodied Intelligence

The increasing trend of studying the innate softness of robotic structures and amalgamating it with the benefits of the extensive developments in the field of embodied intelligence has led to the sprouting of a relatively new yet rewarding sphere of technology in intelligent soft robotics. The fusion of deep reinforcement algorithms with soft bio-inspired structures positively directs to a fruitful prospect of designing completely self-sufficient agents that are capable of learning from observations collected from their environment. For soft robotic structures possessing countless degrees of freedom, it is at times not convenient to formulate mathematical models necessary for training a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) agent. Deploying current imitation learning algorithms on soft robotic systems has provided competent results. This review article posits an overview of various such algorithms along with instances of being applied to real-world scenarios, yielding frontier results. Brief descriptions highlight the various pristine branches of DRL research in soft robotics.

Soft actuators for real-world applications

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Li ◽  
Aniket Pal ◽  
Amirreza Aghakhani ◽  
Abdon Pena-Francesch ◽  
Metin Sitti
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Real World Applications ◽  
Soft Actuators

Fifty Years of Research on Self-Replication: An Overview

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Sipper
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Automata ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Real World ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Computer Programs ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
New Materials ◽  
The Past ◽  
Real World Applications ◽  
Self Replication

The study of artificial self-replicating structures or machines has been taking place now for almost half a century. My goal in this article is to present an overview of research carried out in the domain of self-replication over the past 50 years, starting from von Neumann's work in the late 1940s and continuing to the most recent research efforts. I shall concentrate on computational models, that is, ones that have been studied from a computer science point of view, be it theoretical or experimental. The systems are divided into four major classes, according to the model on which they are based: cellular automata, computer programs, strings (or strands), or an altogether different approach. With the advent of new materials, such as synthetic molecules and nanomachines, it is quite possible that we shall see this somewhat theoretical domain of study producing practical, real-world applications.

scholarly journals Monolithic shape-programmable dielectric liquid crystal elastomer actuators

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. eaay0855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoey S. Davidson ◽  
Hamed Shahsavan ◽  
Amirreza Aghakhani ◽  
Yubing Guo ◽  
Lindsey Hines ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Crystal ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Elastic Anisotropy ◽  
Active Material ◽  
Soft Robotics ◽  
Liquid Crystal Elastomer ◽  
Liquid Crystal Elastomers ◽  
Soft Actuators

Soft robotics may enable many new technologies in which humans and robots physically interact, yet the necessary high-performance soft actuators still do not exist. The optimal soft actuators need to be fast and forceful and have programmable shape changes. Furthermore, they should be energy efficient for untethered applications and easy to fabricate. Here, we combine desirable characteristics from two distinct active material systems: fast and highly efficient actuation from dielectric elastomers and directed shape programmability from liquid crystal elastomers. Via a top-down photoalignment method, we program molecular alignment and localized giant elastic anisotropy into the liquid crystal elastomers. The linearly actuated liquid crystal elastomer monoliths achieve strain rates over 120% per second with an energy conversion efficiency of 20% while moving loads over 700 times the elastomer weight. The electric actuation mechanism offers unprecedented opportunities toward miniaturization with shape programmability, efficiency, and more degrees of freedom for applications in soft robotics and beyond.

scholarly journals Electronic Phenomena of Transition Metal Oxides

Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 256
Author(s):  
Christian Rodenbücher ◽  
Kristof Szot
Keyword(s):  
Solid State ◽  
Transition Metal ◽  
Metal Oxides ◽  
Real World ◽  
Transition Metal Oxides ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Real World Applications

Transition metal oxides with ABO3 or BO2 structures have become one of the major research fields in solid state science, as they exhibit an impressive variety of unusual and exotic phenomena with potential for their exploitation in real-world applications [...]

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