School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China.
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, Tianjin, 300350, China.
Nat Commun. 2023 May 26;14(1):3036. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-38792-z.
In nature, many plants have evolved diverse flight mechanisms to disperse seeds by wind and propagate their genetic information. Inspired by the flight mechanism of the dandelion seeds, we demonstrate light-driven dandelion-inspired microfliers based on ultralight and super-sensitive tubular-shaped bimorph soft actuator. Like dandelion seeds in nature, the falling velocity of the as-proposed microflier in air can be facilely controlled by tailoring the degree of deformation of the "pappus" under different light irradiations. Importantly, the resulting microflier is able to achieve a mid-air flight above a light source with a sustained flight time of ~8.9 s and a maximum flight height of ~350 mm thanks to the unique dandelion-like 3D structures. Unexpectedly, the resulting microflier is found to exhibit light-driven upward flight accompanied by autorotating motion, and the rotation mode can be customized in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction by engineering the shape programmability of bimorph soft actuator films. The research disclosed herein can offer new insights into the development of untethered and energy-efficient artificial aerial vehicles that are of paramount significance for many applications from environmental monitoring and wireless communication to future solar sail and robotic spacecraft.
在自然界中，许多植物已经进化出了多样化的飞行机制，通过风来传播种子并传播其遗传信息。受蒲公英种子飞行机制的启发，我们展示了基于超轻和超灵敏管状双折射软致动器的光驱动蒲公英启发微型飞行器。与自然界中的蒲公英种子一样，通过调整不同光照射下“冠毛”的变形程度，可以轻松控制所提出的微型飞行器在空气中的下落速度。重要的是，由于独特的蒲公英状 3D 结构，所得到的微型飞行器能够在光源上方实现持续约 8.9 秒的中空气流飞行，最大飞行高度约为 350 毫米。出乎意料的是，所得到的微型飞行器被发现具有光驱动的向上飞行和自旋转运动，并且通过工程双折射软致动器薄膜的形状可编程性，可以定制顺时针或逆时针的旋转模式。本文所揭示的研究可以为无绳和节能的人工飞行器的发展提供新的见解，这对于从环境监测和无线通信到未来的太阳能帆和机器人航天器等许多应用都具有至关重要的意义。
