Chen He, Chen Zhong, Liu Zonglin, Xiong Jinhua, Yan Qian, Fei Teng, Zhao Xu, Xue Fuhua, Zheng Haowen, Lian Huanxin, Chen Yunxiang, Xu Liangliang, Peng Qingyu, He Xiaodong
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology On Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, People's Republic of China.
Dongfang Electric Academy of Science and Technology Co. Ltd, Chengdu, 611731, People's Republic of China.
Nanomicro Lett. 2025 Apr 30;17(1):243. doi: 10.1007/s40820-025-01762-9.
Currently, numerous biomimetic robots inspired by natural biological systems have been developed. However, creating soft robots with versatile locomotion modes remains a significant challenge. Snakes, as invertebrate reptiles, exhibit diverse and powerful locomotion abilities, including prey constriction, sidewinding, accordion locomotion, and winding climbing, making them a focus of robotics research. In this study, we present a snake-inspired soft robot with an initial coiling structure, fabricated using MXene-cellulose nanofiber ink printed on pre-expanded polyethylene film through direct ink writing technology. The controllable fabrication of initial coiling structure soft robot (ICSBot) has been achieved through theoretical calculations and finite element analysis to predict and analyze the initial structure of ICSBot, and programmable ICSBot has been designed and fabricated. This robot functions as a coiling gripper capable of grasping objects with complex shapes under near infrared light stimulation. Additionally, it demonstrates multi-modal crawling locomotion in various environments, including confined spaces, unstructured terrains, and both inside and outside tubes. These results offer a novel strategy for designing and fabricating coiling-structured soft robots and highlight their potential applications in smart and multifunctional robotics.
目前，受自然生物系统启发的众多仿生机器人已经被开发出来。然而，制造具有多种运动模式的软体机器人仍然是一项重大挑战。蛇作为无脊椎爬行动物，展现出多样且强大的运动能力，包括捕食收缩、侧行、手风琴式运动和蜿蜒攀爬，这使其成为机器人研究的一个焦点。在本研究中，我们展示了一种具有初始盘绕结构的蛇形软体机器人，它是通过直接墨水书写技术，使用印在预膨胀聚乙烯薄膜上的MXene-纤维素纳米纤维墨水制造而成。通过理论计算和有限元分析来预测和分析初始盘绕结构软体机器人（ICSBot）的初始结构，实现了其可控制造，并设计制造了可编程的ICSBot。该机器人可作为一种盘绕式夹具，能够在近红外光刺激下抓取形状复杂的物体。此外，它还能在各种环境中展示多模态爬行运动，包括狭窄空间、非结构化地形以及管道内外。这些结果为设计和制造盘绕结构的软体机器人提供了一种新策略，并突出了它们在智能和多功能机器人领域的潜在应用。
