Abstract
Stimulus‐responsive soft structures, with biological organs like intrinsic sensing, are needed to enable controlled movements and hence bring the transformative advances in soft robotics. Herein, bioinspired inchworm‐ and earthworm‐like soft structures with intrinsic strain sensing achieved by seamless embedding of a graphite‐paste‐based sensor material are presented. The developed strain sensor exhibits a record stretchability (900%) and sensitivity (of 103 up to ≈200 and of the order of 105 at around 700% linear strain). With tiny permanent magnets incorporated at the ends of these soft structures, the sensory‐feedback‐based controlled movements of magnetically driven inchworm‐ and earthworm‐like soft robots are also demonstrated. The presented results potentially boost the prospects of self‐sensing in soft robots and advance the field toward cognitive soft robotics.
Highlights
Stimulus-responsive soft structures, with biological organs like intrinsic sensing, robots reported so far have imitated simple are needed to enable controlled movements and bring the transformative advances in soft robotics
Introduction approaches in soft robotics are challenging due to difficulties related to integration or embedding of stiff devices in the flexible
Www.advintellsyst.com paste material and Ecoflex and demonstrated its performance for potential soft robotic applications
Summary
Ultrastretchability of sensors, in particular strain sensors, is crucial for soft robotic applications. The actuation protocol is similar to the one followed for the earthworm soft robot locomotion discussed in the previous section and Figure 3a, except that the two linear motors (thereby attached magnets) move closer from the equilibrium position while they move apart for earthworm motion This is in accordance with the fact that the earthworm motion relies on stretching deformation, whereas inchworm locomotion relies on bending deformation. Even though both the motors can be made to modulate under closed feedback loop, for convenience, as well as to demonstrate the adaptiveness on the closed-loop soft robot actuation to unprogrammed stimulus, the front motor is operated under manual control and back motor under automatic (closed-loop) control The two-magnet actuation provides better controlled locomotion than the single magnet in the presented scenario
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