Soft Body Research Articles

Revolutionizing protective materials: Ultrahigh peak viscosity through MOF-enhanced shear thickening fluid for advanced soft body armor

The incorporation of shear thickening fluid (STF) into aramid fabric has emerged as a compelling strategy to augment the protective attributes of aramid-based soft body armor. The peak viscosity of STF assumes a pivotal role in shaping the efficacy of this enhancement. In this study, we present an innovation in the design and synthesis of an ultrahigh peak viscosity STF using metal-organic framework (MOF)/SiO2 nanoparticles as the core constituents. The remarkable enhancement in peak viscosity of MOFs/SiO2-based STF, taking ZIF-8 as an exemplary MOFs material, is attributed to the pronounced interparticle contact friction facilitated by the rugged surface morphology of the ZIF-8/SiO2 nanoparticles. Therefore, ZIF-8/SiO2-based STF (62.5 wt.%) demonstrates a peak viscosity approximately 3938 times greater than that of conventional SiO2-based STF (62.5 wt.%). This extraordinary STF formulation has been successfully employed in aramid fabric-based soft body armor, resulting in a significantly advancement in protective performance. Compared to Kevlar fabric impregnated with SiO2-based STF (62.5 wt.%), the utilization of ZIF-8/SiO2-based STF (62.5 wt.%) results in substantial and scientifically significant improvements in key mechanical parameters. These include a notable 15.4 % increase in maximum stabbing force, a remarkable 29.5 % augmentation in maximum yarn pull-out force, a 24.3 % boost in maximum yarn tensile strength, and a 204.5 % enhancement in maximum fabric tensile strength. This research underscores the profound impact of synergizing ZIF-8 and SiO2 within the STF matrix, and significantly improves the protective abilities of SiO2-based STF-impregnated Kevlar fabrics, which provides a new route to design STF-impregnated ballistic fabric with high protective performance.

To be alive or not to be alive: Radiocarbon data provide new perspective on species diversity in the Caspian Sea

Abstract The Caspian Sea is undergoing a severe biodiversity crisis. However, estimates of current extinction rates are difficult to obtain due to the lack of reliable pre‐Anthropocene baseline data. For example, because the majority of endemic gastropod species was described from “fresh looking” shells, it remains unclear which species still existed prior to the Anthropocene. This study therefore used the species‐rich microgastropod family Hydrobiidae to assess the extent to which endemic species were collected alive during the Anthropocene. Literature and database searches were performed. In addition, 14C dating was conducted on “fresh looking” shells collected in the Caspian Sea during the last 150 years. The literature review revealed that 75% of the “recent” species are only known from empty shells and 25% were recorded with a soft body. The 14C data showed that all “recent” specimens examined had an age between 1624 cal BC and 1888 cal AD. Two species studied predate the beginning of the Anthropocene. Two other species potentially or likely existed during the Anthropocene. This suggests that the number of endemic species still present at the beginning of the Anthropocene is lower than previously thought. The data also suggest that there was a substantial loss of species between the late 18th century and the 1950s and that only two endemic hydrobiid species have recently been found alive. These findings further contribute to the notion of a severe biodiversity crisis in the Caspian Sea. For accurate estimates of current extinction rates of Caspian Sea gastropods, pre‐Anthropocene biodiversity data need to be further corroborated. Particularly, studies are required to clarify the taxonomic status of the dubious taxa and a possible “collection crisis” in the Caspian Sea due to decreasing sampling efforts in recent decades. In addition, comprehensive IUCN assessments are urgently required.

The First Evidence of the Water Bioremediation Potential of Ficopomatus enigmaticus (Fauvel 1923): From Threat to Resource?

Each year, a staggering 700,000 tons of synthetic dyes are manufactured globally, leading to the release of dye-laden wastewater into aquatic systems. These synthetic dyes resist biodegradation, endangering human and environmental health. Since traditional wastewater treatments are basically unable to remove dyes, exploring the potential of alternative solutions, such as bioremediation, is crucial to reduce dye contamination in aquatic ecosystems. Ficopomatus enigmaticus (Fauvel 1923), listed as one of the 100 worst invasive species in Europe, is considered an invasive ecosystem engineer capable of causing economic and ecological losses. Despite this negative status, the literature suggests its positive contributions to aquatic ecosystems as habitat former and water bioremediator. However, existing evidence on the potential of F. enigmaticus to improve water quality is fragmented and lacks experimental data from laboratory tests. This study examined the potential of Ficopomatus reefs, both living and dead, to enhance water quality by removing contaminants, focusing on methylene blue (MB), one of the most common synthetic dyes. Bioaccumulation and bioadsorption were identified as key mechanisms for dye removal, supported by ATR-FTIR and microscopic analyses. Ficopomatus efficiently removed up to 80% of MB within 24 h. Bioaccumulation in the soft body accounted for 18% of the total removal, while complex adsorption phenomena involving carbonaceous, microalgal, and organic reef components accounted for 82%. Surprisingly, bioremediated solutions exhibited significant effects in ecotoxicological tests on bacteria, indicating the potential of F. enigmaticus to disrupt bacterial quorum sensing related to biofilm formation, and suggesting a possible antifouling action. This study underscores the intricate interplay between F. enigmaticus, water quality improvement, and potential ecological consequences, stressing the need for further investigation into its multifaceted role in aquatic ecosystems.

The Importance of Mussels for the Planet

Here is a riddle: it has a soft body, no head, and lives inside two shells, clinging to the rocks in the sea… what kind of animal is it? If you said mussel, you got it! Mussels are constantly working as they filter the seawater in search of food, and filtering makes the water healthier for the other organisms that live there. Along with their role in keeping the environment healthy, mussels are also important for humans—as a source of income for some and a source of food for many. Unfortunately, global warming and human-caused pollution are threatening the lives of mussels and putting the entire ocean environment at risk. There are a few simple things we can all do to protect mussels—but people usually do not take care of things they do not understand, do you agree? So, keep reading to learn about mussels and what you can do to help them!

Https://www.micropress.org/microaccess/micropaleontology/issue-404/article-2385

Ostracod crustaceans are among the most abundant microfossils in the geological record, thanks to their strongly calcified shell. Most of the fossils belong to the suborder Cytherocopina, which also has a rich diversity of living species. Unfortunately, many of the living representatives are known only by their shell morphology. Soft body always provides valuable insights into the phylogeny, and sometimes conflicts with currently accepted systematics of this group. We provide a complete description of Coquimba ishizakii Yajima 1978, collected from Jeju Island, South Korea. This is the first report on soft body morphology for the entire genus Coquimba Ohmert 1968, and the first record of this genus from Korea. Its soft body morphology is similar to other representatives of the family Hemicytheridae, where Coquimba currently belongs. After reviewing all records of C. ishizakii, we propose that several of them belong to different species, such as all those from Taiwan (modern and fossil). We also provide 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA sequences for this species, the latter being reported for the first time for the entire family Hemicytheridae.

Frontend and backend electronics achieving flexibility and scalability for tomographic tactile sensing

Tactile sensing is essential for robots to adequately interact with the physical world, but creating tactile sensors for the robot’s soft and flexible body surface has been a challenge. The resistance tomography-based tactile sensors have been introduced as a promising approach to creating soft tactile skins because the sensor fabrication can be greatly simplified with the aid of a computation model. This article introduces an electronic design strategy dividing frontend and backend electronics for the resistance tomography-based tactile sensors. In this scheme, the frontend is made of the piezoresistive structure and electrodes that can be changed depending on the required geometry. The backend is the electronic circuit for resistance tomography, which can be used for various frontend geometries. To evaluate the use of a unified backend for different frontend geometries, two frontend specimens with a square shape and a circular shape are tested. The minimum detectable contact force and the minimum discernible contact distance are calculated as 0.83×10-4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$0.83 \ imes 10^{-4}$$\\end{document} N/mm2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^2$$\\end{document}, 2.51 mm for the square-shaped frontend and 1.19×10-4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$1.19 \ imes 10^{-4}$$\\end{document} N/mm2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^2$$\\end{document}, 3.42 mm for the circular-shaped frontend. The results indicated that the proposed electronic design strategy can be used to create tactile skins with different scales and geometries while keeping the same backend design.

LLM for Differentiable Soft Robotic Vision Objects Manipulation

Most existing neural soft object manipulation systems rely on differentiable simu- lation as the default physics engine. However, current explicit differentiable sim- ulation solvers adopt a heuristic searching approach to manipulate the soft body, which easily gets stuck when the initial stage of the end effectors is sub-optimal on single-stage tasks or when performing multi-stage tasks that require complex hi- erarchical actions, which often leads to local-minima. Furthermore, existing deep soft object manipulation systems never consider the soft multi-body dynamics and model the dynamic system with naive explicit visual cues (e.g., image frame). To address this challenge, we propose an implicit, i.e., with energy-based models, soft objects manipulation differentiable simulator (iDSoftor) that guides the dif- ferentiable physics solver to deform the various soft object. The key idea of our work is to integrate energy-based models into the soft-object differentiable simu- lation to address the local minima in common explicit (heuristic transport-based) methods to stabilize the gradient of training differentiable simulators. On simple tasks, such as one-stage tasks, our proposed method can feasibly find a suitable initial stage based on theoretical arguments, refer to. On complex multi-stage tasks with multimodal, like implicit visual cues states, our proposed methods can iteratively adjust the manipulation trajec- tory from the perspective of energy priorities. To evaluate the feasibility of our proposed method, we formulate various potential novel soft-object manipulation tasks and demonstrate a preliminary story.

Effect of Resin Coating on Soft Body Impact Damage of CFRP

Effect of Resin Coating on Soft Body Impact Damage of CFRP

Enhancement of silk fabric knife-stabbing resistance for soft body armor

Traditional silk, known for its strength, flexibility, and comfort, shows promise as a lightweight, comfortable material for stab-resistant armor. This study explores enhancing silk’s knife-stabbing resistance for soft body armor through surface treatments. This study aims to augment the knife-stabbing resistance of silk fabric for soft body armor. Designed a falling tower setup to investigate fabric responses under impact. Exploring the addition of layers with coatings like silicon dioxide deposition, rice ash deposition, and aluminum oxide particles, the investigation revealed significant enhancements. A solitary silk layer exclusively coated with resin exhibited improvements of approximately 37.07%, 29.21%, and 13.47% in stab resistance for rice ash, aluminum oxide, and silicon oxide particles, respectively. The specific knife penetration depth indicated that the coating is more effective in diminishing penetration depth. The research identified that 7 layers of pure silk and 3 layers coated with rice ash satisfy National Institute of Justice Standard–0115.00, S1 as 26 layers of silk fabric, demonstrating a reduction without compromising protective efficacy.

Gradient shear thickening gel/Kevlar fabric multi-layer armor with enhanced impact attenuation property

Realizing highly-efficient energy absorbing performance in soft body armor, yet with lightweight feature, has always been an eternal subject for personal protective equipment. This work reports a gradient-stacked shear thickening gel (STG)/Kevlar (GS-STG/Kevlar) fabric multi-layer armor with both lightweight feature and excellent impact attenuation performance. Firstly, STG is prepared by mechanical blending and chemical crosslinking and then coated on Kevlar fabrics, and afterwards STG-coated multi-layer Kevlar fabrics with gradient STG distribution in the thickness direction are fabricated. Single yarn pull-out test demonstrates that the friction between Kevlar yarns is greatly increased after STG treatment. Moreover, tribological testing also indicates that the friction coefficient of Kevlar fabrics is improved by coating STG. Furthermore, low- and high-speed impact experiments are conducted, and the results demonstrate that the GS-STG/Kevlar fabric composite exhibits the best impact attenuation property when compared with multilayered Kevlar fabrics and uniformly stacked STG/Kevlar fabrics under the same impact conditions. The increased friction and stiffening effect by STG, and the gradient stacking strategy are responsible for the great improvement in the impact attenuation performance of GS-STG/Kevlar fabric multi-layer armors. This study provides an effective methodology for achieving soft body armors with lightweight and high impact attenuation properties for personal impact protection.

REFLEKSI ATAS TUBUH DALAM KARYA PUTU SUTAWIJAYA “ENERGI TUNGGAL”

"Analyzing Putu Sutawijaya's painting titled "Energi Tunggal" (Single Energy) portrays the body as a central focus, through documentation and direct observation of his paintings, which are then analyzed using Roland Barthes' semiotic approach, Foucault's genealogy of the body, Ponty's Phenomenology, Heidegger's Existentialism, and Freud's Psychoanalysis. Roland Barthes' semiotic approach divides signs into denotation and connotation. At the denotative level, Putu depicts a figure's movement with the burdens surrounding it. At the connotative level, it explains that the burden on the social and value systems binds and does not liberate its people. Then Foucault describes the body as a soft body. Putu shows the absence of freedom that a free person owns over his own body. In Ponty's Phenomenology, the world is available to individuals. Thus, the relationship between humans and their world is never genuinely distant but needs to be more dialectical. Heidegger's Existentialism views the relationship of the body with its world. In his paintings, Putu sees that culture always constructs an individual, showing the form of a person's relationship with his world. Freud's Psychoanalysis on libido, there is a form of individual freedom to actualize themselves that is always limited by rules, values, and norms. Putu's work depicts efforts to break free but are still burdened by social considerations. This study on the painting is to spur the spirit of creating art and enrich new discourses in the Indonesian visual arts world.

Squid-Inspired Powerful Untethered Soft Pumps via Magnetically Induced Phase Transitions.

Soft robots possess unique deformability and hence result in great adaptability to various unconstructive environments; meanwhile, untethered soft actuation techniques are critical in fully exploiting their potential for practical applications. However, restricted by the material's softness and structural compliance, most untethered actuation systems were incapable of achieving fully soft construction with a powerful output. While in Nature, with a fully soft body, a squid can burst high-pressure jet flow from a cavity that drives the squid to swim swiftly. Here, inspired by such a unique actuation strategy of squids, an entirely soft pump capable of high-pressure output, fast jetting, and untethered control is presented, and it helps a bionic soft robotic squid to achieve a high-efficient untethered motion in water. The soft pump is designed by a reversible liquid-gas phase transition of an inductive heating magnetic liquid metal composite that acts as an adjustable power source with high heat efficiency. In particular, being purely soft, the pump can yet lift ∼20 times its weight and achieve ∼3 times the specific pressure of the previous record. It may promote the application of soft robots with independent actuation, high output power, and embodied energy supply.

Full-Scale Assessment of Seismic and Wind Load Performance in the Design of a Flexible Solar-Shading Double-Skin Façade

Cable-supported façades represent a novel approach in the design and technology of double skin façades (DSFs). This type of system not only offers flexibility in terms of exterior finishes, but also regulates the access of solar radiation, thereby transforming the appearance of the building in response to varying daylight conditions. However, the structural performance of these façades under wind, impact, and seismic loads remains an active area of research. The study is a groundbreaking work that experimentally evaluates the wind and seismic behaviour of these type of façades. The methodology used for the evaluation of flexible masonry facades includes laboratory tests analysing the individual capacity of the connections and materials of the system under standardized and non-standardized procedures. A full-scale experimental sub-assembly specimen of a representative module of the façade is also subjected to uniformly distributed pressures of wind load tests, as well as hard body and soft body impact tests. The setup considered the border conditions, tension loads, and actual materials. Furthermore, the earthquake assessment includes tests of full-scale specimens subjected to these demands. The results show up to 30% enhanced performance relative to similar systems reported in the literature. Furthermore, research findings facilitated the refinement and redesign of the system components, thereby validating the DSF case study.

Soft Self-Healing Robot Driven by New Micro Two-Way Shape Memory Alloy Spring.

Soft robotic bodies are susceptible to mechanical fatigue, punctures, electrical breakdown, and aging, which can result in the degradation of performance or unexpected failure. To overcome these challenges, a soft self-healing robot is created using a thermoplastic methyl thioglycolate-modified styrene-butadiene-styrene (MG-SBS) elastomer tube fabricated by melt-extrusion, to allow the robot to self-heal autonomously at room temperature. After repeated damage and being separated into several parts, the robot is able to heal its stiffness and elongation to break to enable almost complete recovery of robot performance after being allowed to heal at room temperature for 24 h. The self-healing capability of the robot is examinedacross the material scale to robot scale by detailed investigations of the healing process, healing efficiency, mechanical characterization of the robot, and assessment of dynamic performance before and after healing. The self-healing robot is driven by a new micro two-way shape-memory alloy (TWSMA) spring actuator which achieved a crawling speed of 21.6cm/min, equivalent to 1.57 body length per minute. An analytical model of the robot is created to understand the robot dynamics and to act as an efficient tool for self-healing robot design and optimization. This work therefore provides a new methodology to create efficient, robust, and damage-tolerant soft robots.

Impact dynamics analyses on an innovative fiber-reinforced rubber composite bumper system for bridge protection

To reduce damage resulting from ship collisions and protect the bridge, an innovative fiber-reinforced rubber composite bumper system consisting of a steel box and a soft body is introduced in this study. Three specimens with different impact speed of the cart and the spacing of the steel box web were tested. These tests were carried out using scaled models to obtain impact force-time history curves. Subsequently, the collision failure modes were analyzed. Analysis results reveal that these anti-collision facilities not only have the capacity to reduce damage to ships but also protect the bridge's pier. Furthermore, the energy absorption behavior of the system was examined. To further test the practicality of the approach, the main piers of an actual-sized cable-stayed bridge were equipped with fiber-reinforced rubber composite bumper systems for collision simulation. In simulations of ship-bridge collisions, cases with and without anti-collision facilities were compared. A decrease in the peak impact force and an extension of the impact process when using the fiber-reinforced rubber composite bumper system were found. Its effectiveness in safeguarding both ships and bridge piers is highlighted. Additionally, a parameter study on velocity was conducted, demonstrating the system's ability to withstand higher energy impacts. Furthermore, it was found that changes in stiffener and soft layer thickness can influence the impact force response.

Microplastic abundance in urban vs. peri-urban mangroves: The feasibility of using invertebrates as biomonitors of microplastic pollution in two mangrove dominated estuaries of southern Africa

Microplastic (MP) prevalence has been well documented, however, knowledge gaps exist for African mangrove forests. This research is the first to compare MP pollution (using FT-IR analysis) in an urban (Durban Bay) and peri-urban (Mngazana Estuary) mangrove forest in South Africa, across different compartments. MP pollution (typology, abundance, and distribution) was quantified in estuarine surface water, sediment and the soft tissue of three keystone species (Austruca occidentalis, Chiromantes eulimene and Cerithidea decollata) in relation to disturbances acting on these systems. MP averages ranged from 99 to 82 MPs/kg sediment, 177 to 76 MPs/L water and 82 to 59 MP/g−1 DW in biota. Overall fibres were the dominant MP type across all compartments. The three invertebrate species exhibited MP bioaccumulation, however, significant differences were observed between MP concentrations in the soft body tissue of invertebrates and abiotic compartments, providing evidence that they are not effective biomonitors of MP pollution.

A low-cost unity-based virtual training simulator for laparoscopic partial nephrectomy using HTC Vive.

Laparoscopic education and surgery assessments increase the success rates and lower the risks during actual surgeries. Hospital residents need a secure setting, and trainees require a safe and controlled environment with cost-effective resources where they may hone their laparoscopic abilities. Thus, we have modeled and developed a surgical simulator to provide the initial training in Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy (LPN-a procedure to treat kidney cancer or renal masses). To achieve this, we created a virtual simulator using an open-source game engine that can be used with a commercially available, reasonably priced virtual reality (VR) device providing visual and haptic feedback. In this study, the proposed simulator's design is presented, costs are contrasted, and the simulator's performance is assessed using face and content validity measures. CPU- and GPU-based computers can run the novel simulation with a soft body deformation based on simplex meshes. With a reasonable trade-off between price and performance, the HTC Vive's controlled soft body effect, physics-based deformation, and haptic rendering offer the advantages of an excellent surgical simulator. The trials show that the medical volunteers who performed the initial LPN procedures for newbie surgeons received positive feedback.

Evaluating the feasibility of measuring planar area of Sclerophytum penghuense and Cladiella hartogi using 2D image analysis

Soft coral (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) farming has been widely used to decrease the fishing pressure on wild populations harvested for use in the ornamental trade and studies related to natural products. With a soft and flexible body, only a few attempts have been made to quantify the growth rate, either in the field or in aquarium systems. In this study, the planar area measurement approach was applied and evaluated for its applicability to soft corals. All fragments of Sclerophytum penghuense and Cladiella hartogi were placed on individual tiles (10 × 10 cm) and randomly distributed in the mesocosm. Two treatments were applied: (1) finger touch treatment, and (2) air exposure for one minute to avoid the influence of morphological flexibility caused by the hydroskeleton before taking photographs underwater. Two independent tests were carried out including (1) applying two treatments before taking photographs for four sides (only for S. penghuense), and (2) comparing the planar area and linear measurement with its dry weight (for both species). Since the shape of C. hartogi is stable through time, the first test was not required for C. hartogi. The photographs were taken twice per day (11:00am and 8:00pm), and five pictures were taken for each side. The results showed that there was no significant difference between one and five pictures used (P > 0.05). Furthermore, taking photographs of two sides that are perpendicular to each other is recommended to provide sufficient statistical power. Meanwhile, the air treatment made the fragments less flexible during the photographing process which should be used in this standardized 2D image analysis. Our results also showed that planar area was strongly correlated (P < 0.001) with its dry weight (R2 = 0.929 for S. penghuense and R2 = 0.945 for C. hartogi). In addition, the air exposure treatment was consistently similar during both times (daytime and nighttime). Based on the results, we suggest this standardized 2D method to measure the growth of soft corals by measuring planar area changes through time.

Modeling embodied intelligence: can we capture its essence by modeling internal and external interactions?

In soft robotics, embodied intelligence leverages on the compliance of the physical body to let sensory-motor behaviour emerge from the interaction with the environment. Soft robot modeling often focuses on the effect of actuation on the deformable body. Can we model and describe mathematically the deformations of a soft robot body under external interaction forces? Would that capture the essence of embodied intelligence? We argue that addressing this challenge, in an interdisciplinary effort, would make embodied intelligence and soft robotics take a leap forward and transition from a trial-and-error pioneering phase to a model-informed discipline era.

Development of sansevieria trifasciata/natural rubber composites for a soft body armor application

Body armor is an indispensable material in the military and defense. The development of body armor nowadays has shifted to lower-cost material with comparable ballistic properties. This research studied the potential of sansevieria trifasciata (ST) fiber as a reinforcement in soft body armor composite. The ST fiber was treated with various NaOH concentrations to achieve the highest tensile strength. The result showed that the highest ST fiber strength was achieved at 1.2GPa by treating the fiber with 1 wt% NaOH solution. The rebound resilience properties of the natural rubber (NR) matrix were optimized by varying the accelerator and carbon black content and were tested according to ISO 4662. The optimum energy absorption of the NR matrix was obtained using 0.4 part per hundred rubber (phr) accelerator and 30 phr carbon black. The ballistic performance of ST/NR composites was evaluated through a simulation using LS-DYNA software. The ballistic simulation revealed that the minimum thickness of ST/NR composite was 15mm to stop a bullet with a velocity of 436m/s. The results of this study indicated that ST/NR green composite was a promising candidate for a soft body armor application.