Electro-active robotic materials are the interface between the digital world and the physical
one. They produce force/motion in response to an electrical stimulus (artificial muscles) and
generate electrical signals in response to physical stimuli (soft sensors). Some materials can
change their bulk or surface properties responding to a digital input (electro-active and
variable stiffness materials).
My work has focused on electro-fluidic artificial muscles and electro-active soft grippers.
These solid-state soft devices are silent, flexible, and miniaturized. They offer a path
towards highly integrated responsive materials for the next generation of intelligent robots
and active wearables.
In this talk, I will first discuss the force/softness dilemma in soft robotics and how we leverage
electro-adhesion on soft fingers to develop grippers that are at the same time delicate enough
to pick a ripe tomato and so strong to lift 1000 times their own weight. These grippers can
also grasp flexible objects such as fabric and plastic. pouches This technology is now being
commercialized by the spin-off company Omnigrasp SRL and is part of two EU-funded
projects.
I will then present our work on solid-state soft pumps, as a means of using fluids to decouple
electrical transducers from mechanical motion, easing material and fabrication requirements.
Our solid-state pumps solve the challenge of integrating fluid circulation in soft robots and
wearables, replacing noisy and bulk pumps and compressors with stretchable or fiber-shaped
pumps.
I will conclude discussing future directions for electro-active soft materials.
We report electrically shielded capacitive stretchable force sensors, that simultaneously measure normal and shear strains, even near electric sparks. The device consists of an outer conductive stretchable shielding layer (carbon-loaded silicone) and a central silicone layer with embedded air channels and three liquid metal electrodes. We report sub-mN force resolution in both normal and shear directions, can measure forces larger than 10 N, and operate reliably after repeated loading to 20 N load. Performance is unaffected by nearby high DC and AC electric fields, allowing use in a wide range of robotic sensing applications.
Fluids functions range from thermal management in buildings to blood circulation in animals. To date the use of fluids in soft and wearable robots has been limited by the need for hard and noisy external pumps. Here we report soft pumps, a class of electrically-driven pumps with an entirely flexible or even stretchable body. These pumps rely on ElectroHydroDynamics, a solid-state mechanism that accelerates liquid molecules using electric fields, resulting in silent bi-directional operation. These elastomer pumps can be integrated into untethered soft robots, soft exoskeletons driven by fluidic muscles, and smart textiles with active temperature management.
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