A programmable powerful and ultra-fast water-driven soft actuator inspired by the mutable collagenous tissue of the sea cucumber
SCIE
SCOPUS
- Title
- A programmable powerful and ultra-fast water-driven soft actuator inspired by the mutable collagenous tissue of the sea cucumber
- Authors
- Choi, Andrew; Han, Hyeonseok; Kim, Dong Sung
- Date Issued
- 2021-08
- Publisher
- ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
- Abstract
- The sea cucumber evolved to bear mutable collagenous tissue (MCT) that enables its elastic modulus to change by a factor of 10 within a few seconds. It does this by controlling the amount of chemical regulator released, which can subsequently form or break hydrogen bonds within the MCT. Although existing water-driven, self-operating, soft actuators have great potential for soft robotics, they remain fragile and slow; ergo, their range of application remains modest. Inspired by MCT, we introduce a programmable, powerful, and ultra-fast water-driven self-operating soft actuator exerting an actuation force of approximately 2 N with an actuation speed of approximately 3 s(-1) in 80 degrees C water based on the dramatic stiffness alteration of bulk poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel. This actuator also exhibits outstanding robustness by preserving its original shape over multiple cycles of highly strained (300%) actuations under harsh environments. A simple modulation of cross-linker concentration with its dimensional adjustment enabled the precise tuning of not only the actuation force but also the actuation speed in a wide range. Thus, the soft robotic gripper was able to perform a myriad of intricate tasks such as capturing a fragile object, acting as a biomedical appliance, and closing a large wound with uniform appropriate forces.
- URI
- https://oasis.postech.ac.kr/handle/2014.oak/108466
- DOI
- 10.1039/d1ta02566j
- ISSN
- 2050-7488
- Article Type
- Article
- Citation
- JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A, vol. 9, no. 29, page. 15937 - 15947, 2021-08
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