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Magnetic Printing of Liquid Metal for Perceptive Soft Actuators with Embodied Intelligence
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posted on 2021-01-21, 09:14 authored by Biao Ma, Chengtao Xu, Lishan Cui, Chao Zhao, Hong LiuSoft actuators with perception capability
are essential for robots
to intelligently interact with humans and the environment. However,
existing perceptive soft actuators require complex integration and
coupling between the discrete functional units to achieve autonomy.
Here, we report entirely soft actuators with embodied sensing, actuation,
and control at the single-unit level. This is achieved by synergistically
harnessing the mechanosensing and electrothermal properties of liquid
metal (LM) to actuate the thermally responsive liquid crystal elastomer
(LCE). We create multifunctional LM circuits on the LCE surface using
a simple and facile methodology based on magnetic printing. The fluidic
LM circuit can not only be utilized as a conformable resistive heater
but also as a sensory skin to perceive its own deformation. Moreover,
the rational design of the LM circuits makes it possible to achieve
biomimetic autonomous actuation in response to mechanical stimuli
such as pressure or strain. In addition, the intrinsic stretchability
of LM allows us to create 3D spring-like actuators via a simple prestretch step, and complex helical motions can be obtained
upon mechanical stimulation. This work provides a unique and simple
design for autonomous soft robotics with embodied intelligence.