Novel fabrication of soft microactuators with morphological computing using soft lithography

Abstract

A simple and cost-effective method for the patterning and fabrication of soft polymer microactuators integrated with morphological computation is presented. The microactuators combine conducting polymers to provide the actuation, with spatially designed structures for a morphologically controlled, user-defined actuation. Soft lithography is employed to pattern and fabricate polydimethylsiloxane layers with geometrical pattern, for use as a construction element in the microactuators. These microactuators could obtain multiple bending motions from a single fabrication process depending on the morphological pattern defined in the final step. Instead of fabricating via conventional photolithography route, which involves multiple steps with different chromium photomasks, this new method uses only one single design template to produce geometrically patterned layers, which are then specifically cut to obtain multiple device designs. The desired design of the actuator is decided in the final step of fabrication. The resulting microactuators generate motions such as a spiral, screw, and tube, using a single design template.Microrobots: Novel fabrication of artificial muscleA novel technique can fabricate multiple ‘soft microrobots’ from a single design process that may prove useful in biomedical applications. With a continuous drive for robots to get smaller and more efficient, researchers are looking for alternatives to complex, traditional machinery. Edwin Jager and his team from Linköping University in Sweden now report a technique that combines elastomeric silicone and electroactive polymer into an artificial muscle: a soft microrobot actuated depending on the presence of ions in solution. Through controlling the thickness and length of rigid and flexible sections, the team’s devices can produce multiple, different motions such as spiraling and screwing. Such soft robots could find uses in future minimally invasive surgery or drug delivery systems. Jager and his team are now working on soft robots that function in air.