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High speed underwater hydrogel robots with programmable motions powered by light
Chujun Ni1, Di Chen2, Xin Wen1
1State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, 310058, Hangzhou, China.
Nature Communications
|November 23, 2023
Summary
Researchers developed fast-acting underwater soft robots using stimuli-responsive hydrogels. This breakthrough overcomes slow diffusion limitations, enabling programmable, high-speed motions like swimming and walking.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Robotics
- Polymer Chemistry
Background:
- Stimuli-responsive hydrogels are promising for underwater soft robots.
- Current limitations include slow actuation speeds due to water diffusion and restricted motion complexity from fabrication methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To report a novel mechanism for high-speed and programmable actuation in disulfide crosslinked, thermally responsive hydrogels.
- To overcome the mass-diffusion-limited actuation speed in hydrogel-based soft robots.
Main Methods:
- Utilized dynamic photo-activated disulfide bond exchange for photo-mechanical programming.
- Introduced spatio-selective network anisotropy to control actuation behavior.
- Incorporated photothermal fillers for light-powered actuation.
Main Results:
- Achieved actuation dominated by thermally driven polymer chain conformation changes, not mass diffusion.
- Demonstrated light-powered oscillation at frequencies up to 1.7 Hz.
- Enabled diverse high-speed motions, including continuous swimming, step-wise walking, and rotating.
Conclusions:
- The developed photo-mechanical programming method enables high-speed, programmable actuation in hydrogel soft robots.
- This approach overcomes previous speed limitations, paving the way for advanced underwater robotic applications.
