Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR 999077, PR China.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Morphing Mechanisms and Adaptive Robotics, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, PR China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 18;15(1):5197. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49148-6.
Untethered miniature soft robots have significant application potentials in biomedical and industrial fields due to their space accessibility and safe human interaction. However, the lack of selective and forceful actuation is still challenging in revolutionizing and unleashing their versatility. Here, we propose a focused ultrasound-controlled phase transition strategy for achieving millimeter-level spatially selective actuation and Newton-level force of soft robots, which harnesses ultrasound-induced heating to trigger the phase transition inside the robot, enabling powerful actuation through inflation. The millimeter-level spatial resolution empowers single robot to perform multiple tasks according to specific requirements. As a concept-of-demonstration, we designed soft robot for liquid cargo delivery and biopsy robot for tissue acquisition and patching. Additionally, an autonomous control system is integrated with ultrasound imaging to enable automatic acoustic field alignment and control. The proposed method advances the spatiotemporal response capability of untethered miniature soft robots, holding promise for broadening their versatility and adaptability.
由于其空间可达性和与人安全交互的特性，无束缚微型软体机器人在生物医学和工业领域具有重要的应用潜力。然而，在彻底改变和释放其多功能性方面，缺乏选择性和有力的驱动仍然是一个挑战。在这里，我们提出了一种基于聚焦超声控制的相变策略，以实现毫米级空间选择性驱动和牛顿级力的软体机器人，该策略利用超声诱导加热来触发机器人内部的相变，通过充气实现强大的驱动。毫米级的空间分辨率使单个机器人能够根据特定需求执行多项任务。作为概念验证，我们设计了用于液体货物输送的软体机器人和用于组织采集和修补的活检机器人。此外，还集成了一个自主控制系统与超声成像，以实现自动声场对准和控制。所提出的方法提高了无束缚微型软体机器人的时空响应能力，有望拓宽其多功能性和适应性。
