Photothermally triggered soft robot with adaptive local deformations and versatile bending modes

Abstract

Soft robots are an emerging field of research in novel robotic design and biomimetic fabrication. Although some meaningful presentations have been designed and fabricated, functionalities in offering versatile manipulation and adaptive deformations to complex surfaces with large output force and displacement are still challenging. Inspired by the impressive abilities of soft-bodied animals, a photomobile soft robotic platform by embedding SMA wires into soft elastomers (i.e., Polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS) are proposed. Beneficial from the advantages of the wireless remote-control and spatiotemporal adjustability of nIR light illumination, photomechanical adaptive continuous deformations, large mechanical output force and photomobile versatile bending modes can be realized. In addition, adaptive photomechanical deformations to the cylinder, ellipse, and sphere-shaped objects can be obtained due to the local and continuous deformations, which indicates a promising grasping ability in adaptive conforming to complex shaped objects in maneuvering through an obstacle course, autonomous and adaptive biomimetic creatures, etc.