Alexandre Khaldi

Knitting and weaving artificial muscles

Textile artificial muscles were developed using weaving to increase the force and knitting to amplify the strain. A need exists for artificial muscles that are silent, soft, and compliant, with performance characteristics similar to those of skeletal muscle, enabling natural interaction of assistive devices with humans. By combining one of humankind’s oldest technologies, textile processing, with electroactive polymers, we demonstrate here the feasibility of wearable, soft artificial muscles made by weaving and knitting, with tunable force and strain. These textile actuators were produced from cellulose yarns assembled into fabrics and coated with conducting polymers using a metal-free deposition. To increase the output force, we assembled yarns in parallel by weaving. The force scaled linearly with the number of yarns in the woven fabric. To amplify the strain, we knitted a stretchable fabric, exhibiting a 53-fold increase in strain. In addition, the textile construction added mechanical stability to the actuators. Textile processing permits scalable and rational production of wearable artificial muscles, and enables novel ways to design assistive devices.

Soft linear electroactive polymer actuators based on polypyrrole

There is a growing demand for human-friendly robots that can interact and work closely with humans. Such robots need to be compliant, lightweight and equipped with silent and soft actuators. Electroactive polymers such as conducting polymers (CPs) are “smart” materials that deform in response to electrical simulation and are often addressed as artificial muscles due to their functional similarity with natural muscles. They offer unique possibilities and are perfect candidates for such actuators since they are lightweight, silent, and driven at low voltages. Most CP actuators are fabricated using electrochemical oxidative synthesis. We have developed new CP based fibres employing both vapour phase and liquid phase electrochemical synthesis. We will present the fabrication and characterisation of these fibres as well as their performance as linear actuators.

PEDOT Based Conducting IPN Actuators: Effects of Electrolyte on Actuation

Actuators from conducting IPNs architecture are described. The electroactive materials are based on several PEO/elastomer IPNs as solid polymer electrolytes in which the conducting polymer Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is gradually dispersed, i.e. its content decreases from the outside towards the centre of the film. Influence of the electrolyte on the actuation properties has been studied. Moreover, the effect of actuator thickness has been investigated. It is shown that the decrease of the thickness leads to fast response systems presenting large deformations at frequencies above 100 Hz.

Soft, flexible micromanipulators comprising polypyrrole trilayer microactuators

Within the areas of cell biology, biomedicine and minimal invasive surgery, there is a need for soft, flexible and dextrous biocompatible manipulators for handling biological objects, such as single cells and tissues. Present day technologies are based on simple suction using micropipettes for grasping objects. The micropipettes lack the possibility of accurate force control, nor are they soft and compliant and may thus cause damage to the cells or tissue. Other micromanipulators use conventional electric motors however the further miniaturization of electrical motors and their associated gear boxes and/or push/pull wires has reached its limits. Therefore there is an urgent need for new technologies for micromanipulation of soft biological matter. We are developing soft, flexible micromanipulators such as micro- tweezers for the handling and manipulation of biological species including cells and surgical tools for minimal invasive surgery. Our aim is to produce tools with minimal dimensions of 100 μm to 1 mm in size, which is 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than existing technology. We present newly developed patterning and microfabrication methods for polymer microactuators as well as the latest results to integrate these microactuators into easy to use manipulation tools. The outcomes of this study contribute to the realisation of low-foot print devices articulated with electroactive polymer actuators for which the physical interface with the power source has been a significant challenge limiting their application. Here, we present a new bottom-up microfabrication process. We show for the first time that such a bottom-up fabricated actuator performs a movement in air. This is a significant step towards widening the application areas of the soft microactuators.

Fabrication and adhesion of conjugated polymer trilayer structures for soft, flexible micromanipulators

We are developing soft, flexible micromanipulators such as micro- tweezers for the handling and manipulation of biological species including cells and surgical tools for minimal invasive surgery. Our aim is to produce tools with minimal dimensions of 100 μm to 1 mm in size, which is 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than existing technology. However, the displacement of the current developed micromanipulator remains limited due to the low ionic conductivity of the materials. Here, we present developed methods for the fabrication of conjugated polymer trilayer structure which exhibit potential to high stretchability/flexibility as well as a good adhesion between the three different layers. The outcomes of this study contribute to the realisation of low-foot print devices articulated with electroactive polymer actuators for which the physical interface with the power source has been a significant challenge limiting their application. Here, we present a new flexible trilayer structure, which will allow the fabrication of metal-free soft microactuators.

Patterning Highly Conducting Conjugated Polymer Electrodes for Soft and Flexible Microelectrochemical Devices

There is a need for soft actuators in various biomedical applications to manipulate delicate objects such as cells and tissues. Soft actuators are able to adapt to any shape and limit the stress applied to delicate objects. Conjugated polymer (CP) actuators, especially in the so-called trilayer configuration, are interesting candidates for driving such micromanipulators. However, challenges involved in patterning the electrodes in a trilayer with individual contact have prevented further development of soft micromanipulators based on CP actuators. To allow such patterning, two printing-based patterning techniques have been developed. First, an oxidant layer is printed using either syringe-based printing or microcontact printing, followed by vapor-phase polymerization of the CP. Submillimeter patterns with electronic conductivities of 800 S·cm-1 are obtained. Next, laser ablation is used to cleanly cut the final device structures including the printed patterns, resulting in fingers with individually controllable digits and miniaturized hands. The methods presented in this paper will enable integration of patterned electrically active CP layers in many types of complex three-dimensional structures.