CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, CAS Center for Excellence in Complex System Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.
Department of Precision Machinery and Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, P. R. China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Jun 30;13(25):30127-30136. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c08252. Epub 2021 Jun 17.
Biomimetic actuators with stimuli-responsiveness, adaptivity, and designability have attracted extensive attention. Recently, soft intelligent actuators based on stimuli-responsive materials have been gradually developed, but it is still challenging to achieve various shape manipulations of actuators through a simple 3D printing technology. In this paper, a 3D printing strategy based on magneto-active materials is developed to manufacture various biomimetic magnetic actuators, in which the new printable magnetic filament is composed of a thermoplastic rubber material and magnetic particles. The continuous shape transformation of magnetic actuators is further demonstrated to imitate the motion characteristic of creatures, including the predation behavior of octopus tentacles, the flying behavior of the butterfly, and the flower blooming behavior of the plant. Furthermore, the magnetic field-induced deformation of the biomimetic structure can be simulated by the finite element method, which can further guide the structural design of the actuators. This work proves that the biomimetic actuator based on soft magneto-active materials has the advantages of programmable integrated structure, rapid prototyping, remote noncontact actuation, and rapid magnetic response. As a result, this 3D printing method possesses broad application prospects in soft robotics and other fields.
具有刺激响应性、适应性和可设计性的仿生执行器引起了广泛关注。最近，基于刺激响应材料的软智能执行器逐渐得到发展，但通过简单的 3D 打印技术实现执行器的各种形状操纵仍然具有挑战性。本文开发了一种基于磁活性材料的 3D 打印策略，用于制造各种仿生磁执行器，其中新型可打印磁丝由热塑性橡胶材料和磁性颗粒组成。进一步展示了磁执行器的连续形状变换，以模仿生物的运动特征，包括章鱼触须的捕食行为、蝴蝶的飞行行为和植物的开花行为。此外，还可以通过有限元方法模拟仿生结构的磁场诱导变形，从而进一步指导执行器的结构设计。这项工作证明了基于软磁活性材料的仿生执行器具有可编程集成结构、快速原型制作、远程非接触致动和快速磁响应的优点。因此，这种 3D 打印方法在软机器人和其他领域具有广阔的应用前景。
