Liu Hao, Wu Changchun, Lin Senyuan, Li Yunquan, Yang Yang, Lam James, Xi Ning, Chen Yonghua
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong.
Shien-Ming Wu School of Intelligent Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guang Zhou 510640, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2025 May 14;17(19):28682-28692. doi: 10.1021/acsami.5c03424. Epub 2025 May 5.
Soft pneumatic actuators are widely used in diverse robotic applications due to their dexterous deformation and conspicuous performance. However, the control and operation of these actuators were restricted by bulky, noisy, and vibrating pneumatic systems. This work introduces a pumpless pneumatic actuator design based on liquid-gas phase transition, named electroconductive fiber-reinforced phase transition actuators (E-FPTAs). Conductive fibers are embedded into the elastomer matrix as flexible heating circuits and morphing programming elements. The E-FPTA generates a high actuation strain of 120% with a low power input of 12 W, showing comparable performance to pump-driven pneumatic actuators. By mechanically programming fiber patterns, the motion type of the E-FPTA can be changed to extending, contracting, twisting, bending, and helical motion, which can be applied for various application scenarios. The E-FPTA is integrated into an octopus-inspired soft gripper and demonstrates multimode grasping in diverse objects. A pumpless robotic glove with eight independent finger joint motions without any pneumatic components is also prototyped. The E-FPTA combines the large deformation of soft pneumatic actuators and the concise structures of the electroactive polymer actuator, which provides a design insight for soft actuations.
软质气动执行器因其灵活的变形能力和出色的性能，在各种机器人应用中得到了广泛应用。然而，这些执行器的控制和操作受到笨重、嘈杂且振动的气动系统的限制。这项工作介绍了一种基于液-气相变的无泵气动执行器设计，名为导电纤维增强相变执行器（E-FPTA）。导电纤维作为柔性加热电路和变形编程元件嵌入到弹性体基质中。E-FPTA在12W的低功率输入下可产生120%的高驱动应变，其性能与泵驱动的气动执行器相当。通过对纤维图案进行机械编程，E-FPTA的运动类型可转变为伸展、收缩、扭转、弯曲和螺旋运动，适用于各种应用场景。E-FPTA被集成到一个受章鱼启发的软质夹具中，并展示了对各种物体的多模式抓取。还制作了一个没有任何气动部件的具有八个独立手指关节运动的无泵机器人手套原型。E-FPTA结合了软质气动执行器的大变形能力和电活性聚合物执行器的简洁结构，为软驱动提供了一种设计思路。
