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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 10, 2026

Design and Fabrication of an Elastomeric Unit for Soft Modular Robots in Minimally Invasive Surgery

Design and Fabrication of an Elastomeric Unit for Soft Modular Robots in Minimally Invasive Surgery

Published on: November 14, 2015

Microrobotic tentacles with spiral bending capability based on shape-engineered elastomeric microtubes.

Jungwook Paek¹, Inho Cho², Jaeyoun Kim¹

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Scientific Reports

|June 13, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed a novel micro-actuator for soft robotics using elastomeric microtubes. This new pneumatic actuator enables efficient, non-damaging gripping of delicate micro-objects, advancing micro-manipulation capabilities.

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Last Updated: Apr 10, 2026

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Area of Science:

Soft Robotics
Micro-actuation
Materials Science

Background:

Microscale soft-robots offer potential for handling delicate micro-objects.
Wider adoption of micro-robots is limited by actuator efficiency and fabrication complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop efficient and easily fabricated micro-actuators for micro-robotic applications.
To create a microrobotic tentacle capable of non-damaging manipulation of fragile micro-objects.

Main Methods:

Fabrication of long, thin, deformable elastomeric microtubes using a direct peeling technique.
Development of a semi-analytical model for microtube shape-engineering.
Integration of microtubes into a pneumatic actuator to create a spiraling micro-tentacle.

Main Results:

Achieved multi-turn inward spiraling of the micro-tentacle with a final radius as small as ~185 μm.
Demonstrated a grabbing force of ~0.78 mN, suitable for delicate manipulation.
Established a novel fabrication technique and shape-engineering model for microtubes.

Conclusions:

The developed micro-tentacle is ideal for non-damaging manipulation of soft, fragile micro-objects.
The direct peeling fabrication technique and microtube shape-engineering offer new possibilities in soft robotics.
These advancements are unprecedented and contribute significantly to the field of micro-robotics.