Science Daily March 14, 2023 A team of researcers in the USA (Carnegie Mellon University, UCLA) has developed a multimodal soft robot locomotion using highly compact and dynamic bistable soft actuators. The actuators are composed of a prestretched membrane sandwiched between two 3D printed frames with embedded shape memory alloy (SMA) coils. The actuator can swiftly transform between two oppositely curved states and generate a force through a snap-through instability that is triggered after 0.2 s of electrical activation with an electrical energy input power. The consistency and robustness of the snap-through actuator response was experimentally validated through cyclical testing. […]
Tag Archives: Soft robot
A soft robotic insect that survives being flattened by a fly swatter
Science Daily December 18, 2019 An international team of researchers (Switzerland, France) developed a soft robot called DEAnsect and equipped with dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). They developed two versions: the first, tethered using ultra-thin wires, is exceptionally robust. It can be folded, hit with a fly swatter or squashed by a shoe without impacting its ability to move. The second is an untethered model that is fully wireless and autonomous, weighing less than 1 gram and carrys its battery and all electronic components on its back. This intelligent insect is equipped with a microcontroller for a brain and photodiodes as […]