Antagonistic-contracting high-power photo-oscillators for multifunctional actuations

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Materials Science
• Biomimetic Engineering

Background:

• Autonomous soft actuators require untethered power and control, which are significant challenges.
• Light-driven actuators offer remote energy input but struggle with high power density.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design a novel self-oscillator for high-power autonomous soft actuators.
• To mimic insect flight muscle structure for enhanced actuator performance.

Main Methods:

• Developed a self-oscillator with two antagonistically contracting photo-active layers and an inactive layer.
• Inspired the design by the structural principles of insect flight muscles.

Main Results:

• Achieved an output power density of 33 W/kg, 275-fold higher than previous configurations.
• Demonstrated high-performance flapping motion with a thrust-to-weight ratio of 0.32.
• Enabled broad-wavelength operation and multifunction integration (proprioception, energy harvesting).

Conclusions:

• The developed oscillator significantly advances autonomous, sustained, and untethered soft actuators.
• This biomimetic approach provides a new material design principle for powerful robotics.
• The actuators show potential for insect-like locomotion and versatile robotic applications.