State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, P. R. China.
Adv Mater. 2022 Dec;34(52):e2200671. doi: 10.1002/adma.202200671. Epub 2022 Nov 29.
Small-scale soft robots are attracting increasing interest for visible and potential applications owing to their safety and tolerance resulting from their intrinsic soft bodies or compliant structures. However, it is not sufficient that the soft bodies merely provide support or system protection. More importantly, to meet the increasing demands of controllable operation and real-time feedback in unstructured/complicated scenarios, these robots are required to perform simplex and multimodal functionalities for sensing, communicating, and interacting with external environments during large or dynamic deformation with the risk of mismatch or delamination. Challenges are encountered during fabrication and integration, including the selection and fabrication of composite/materials and structures, integration of active/passive functional modules with robust interfaces, particularly with highly deformable soft/stretchable bodies. Here, methods and strategies of fabricating structural soft bodies and integrating them with functional modules for developing small-scale soft robots are investigated. Utilizing templating, 3D printing, transfer printing, and swelling, small-scale soft robots can be endowed with several perceptual capabilities corresponding to diverse stimulus, such as light, heat, magnetism, and force. The integration of sensing and functionalities effectively enhances the agility, adaptability, and universality of soft robots when applied in various fields, including smart manufacturing, medical surgery, biomimetics, and other interdisciplinary sciences.
由于其内在的柔软体或柔顺结构带来的安全性和耐受性，小型软体机器人因其可见的和潜在的应用而引起了越来越多的关注。然而，仅仅依靠柔软的身体来提供支撑或系统保护是不够的。更重要的是，为了满足在非结构化/复杂场景中对可控操作和实时反馈的日益增长的需求，这些机器人需要在大变形或动态变形过程中执行简单和多模态功能，以实现与外部环境的传感、通信和交互，同时还存在不匹配或分层的风险。在制造和集成过程中会遇到挑战，包括复合材料/材料和结构的选择和制造、主动/被动功能模块与坚固接口的集成，特别是与高度可变形的柔软/可拉伸体的集成。在这里，研究了用于开发小型软体机器人的结构柔软体的制造方法和与功能模块的集成方法。利用模板法、3D 打印、转印和溶胀，可以使小型软体机器人具有多种感知能力，以对应不同的刺激，如光、热、磁和力。传感和功能的集成有效地提高了软机器人在智能制造、医疗手术、仿生学和其他跨学科科学等各个领域的灵活性、适应性和通用性。
