Ultrafast, Programmable, and Electronics‐Free Soft Robots Enabled by Snapping Metacaps
Soft robots offer a myriad of potential because of their intrinsically compliant bodies, enabling safe interactions with humans and adaptability to unpredictable environments. However, most of them have limited actuation speeds, require complex control systems, and lack sensing capabilities. To addr...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Advanced Intelligent Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300039 |
| _version_ | 1797794213021089792 |
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| author | Lishuai Jin Yueying Yang Bryan O. Torres Maldonado Sebastian David Lee Nadia Figueroa Robert J. Full Shu Yang |
| author_facet | Lishuai Jin Yueying Yang Bryan O. Torres Maldonado Sebastian David Lee Nadia Figueroa Robert J. Full Shu Yang |
| author_sort | Lishuai Jin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Soft robots offer a myriad of potential because of their intrinsically compliant bodies, enabling safe interactions with humans and adaptability to unpredictable environments. However, most of them have limited actuation speeds, require complex control systems, and lack sensing capabilities. To address these challenges, herein, a class of metacaps is geometrically designed by introducing an array of ribs to a spherical cap with programmable bistabilities and snapping behaviors, enabling several unprecedented soft robotic functionalities. Specifically, a centimeter‐sized, sensor‐less metacap gripper is demonstrated that can grasp objects in 3.75 ms upon physical contact or pneumatic actuation with tunable behaviors that have little dependence on the rate of input. The grippers can be readily integrated into a robotic platform for practical applications. The metacap can further enable propelling of a swimming robot, exhibiting amplified swimming speed as well as untethered, electronics‐free swimming with tunable speeds using an oscillating valve. The metacap designs provide new strategies to enable the next‐generation soft robots to achieve high transient output energy and autonomous and electronics‐free maneuvering. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T02:59:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3a5e7f9e13244947b5a0471a1670082b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2640-4567 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T02:59:30Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advanced Intelligent Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-3a5e7f9e13244947b5a0471a1670082b2023-06-27T15:38:29ZengWileyAdvanced Intelligent Systems2640-45672023-06-0156n/an/a10.1002/aisy.202300039Ultrafast, Programmable, and Electronics‐Free Soft Robots Enabled by Snapping MetacapsLishuai Jin0Yueying Yang1Bryan O. Torres Maldonado2Sebastian David Lee3Nadia Figueroa4Robert J. Full5Shu Yang6Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of Pennsylvania 3231 Walnut Street Philadelphia PA 19104 USADepartment of Materials Science and Engineering University of Pennsylvania 3231 Walnut Street Philadelphia PA 19104 USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics University of Pennsylvania 220 S. 33rd Street Philadelphia PA 19104 USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering University of California at Berkeley Berkeley CA 94702 USADepartment of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics University of Pennsylvania 220 S. 33rd Street Philadelphia PA 19104 USADepartment of Integrative Biology University of California at Berkeley Berkeley CA 94702 USADepartment of Materials Science and Engineering University of Pennsylvania 3231 Walnut Street Philadelphia PA 19104 USASoft robots offer a myriad of potential because of their intrinsically compliant bodies, enabling safe interactions with humans and adaptability to unpredictable environments. However, most of them have limited actuation speeds, require complex control systems, and lack sensing capabilities. To address these challenges, herein, a class of metacaps is geometrically designed by introducing an array of ribs to a spherical cap with programmable bistabilities and snapping behaviors, enabling several unprecedented soft robotic functionalities. Specifically, a centimeter‐sized, sensor‐less metacap gripper is demonstrated that can grasp objects in 3.75 ms upon physical contact or pneumatic actuation with tunable behaviors that have little dependence on the rate of input. The grippers can be readily integrated into a robotic platform for practical applications. The metacap can further enable propelling of a swimming robot, exhibiting amplified swimming speed as well as untethered, electronics‐free swimming with tunable speeds using an oscillating valve. The metacap designs provide new strategies to enable the next‐generation soft robots to achieve high transient output energy and autonomous and electronics‐free maneuvering.https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300039bistabilityelectronics-freemechanical metacapssnap-throughultrafast grippers |
| spellingShingle | Lishuai Jin Yueying Yang Bryan O. Torres Maldonado Sebastian David Lee Nadia Figueroa Robert J. Full Shu Yang Ultrafast, Programmable, and Electronics‐Free Soft Robots Enabled by Snapping Metacaps Advanced Intelligent Systems bistability electronics-free mechanical metacaps snap-through ultrafast grippers |
| title | Ultrafast, Programmable, and Electronics‐Free Soft Robots Enabled by Snapping Metacaps |
| title_full | Ultrafast, Programmable, and Electronics‐Free Soft Robots Enabled by Snapping Metacaps |
| title_fullStr | Ultrafast, Programmable, and Electronics‐Free Soft Robots Enabled by Snapping Metacaps |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ultrafast, Programmable, and Electronics‐Free Soft Robots Enabled by Snapping Metacaps |
| title_short | Ultrafast, Programmable, and Electronics‐Free Soft Robots Enabled by Snapping Metacaps |
| title_sort | ultrafast programmable and electronics free soft robots enabled by snapping metacaps |
| topic | bistability electronics-free mechanical metacaps snap-through ultrafast grippers |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202300039 |
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