Origami-inspired folding assembly of dielectric elastomers for programmable soft robots

Yanhua Sun; Dengfeng Li; Mengge Wu; Yale Yang; Jingyou Su; Tszhung Wong; Kangming Xu; Ying Li; Lu Li; Xinge Yu; Junsheng Yu

doi:10.1038/s41378-022-00363-5

Origami-inspired folding assembly of dielectric elastomers for programmable soft robots

Microsyst Nanoeng. 2022 Mar 31:8:37. doi: 10.1038/s41378-022-00363-5. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yanhua Sun^{1

2}, Dengfeng Li³, Mengge Wu^{1

3}, Yale Yang^{1

2}, Jingyou Su³, Tszhung Wong³, Kangming Xu², Ying Li², Lu Li², Xinge Yu³, Junsheng Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, 610054 People's Republic of China.
² Chongqing Key Laboratory of Materials Surface & Interface Science, Chongqing Co-Innovation Center for Micro/Nano Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Micro/Nano Optoelectronic Materials and Devices International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of China, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160 People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, 999077 People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Origami has become an optimal methodological choice for creating complex three-dimensional (3D) structures and soft robots. The simple and low-cost origami-inspired folding assembly provides a new method for developing 3D soft robots, which is ideal for future intelligent robotic systems. Here, we present a series of materials, structural designs, and fabrication methods for developing independent, electrically controlled origami 3D soft robots for walking and soft manipulators. The 3D soft robots are based on soft actuators, which are multilayer structures with a dielectric elastomer (DE) film as the deformation layer and a laser-cut PET film as the supporting flexible frame. The triangular and rectangular design of the soft actuators allows them to be easily assembled into crawling soft robots and pyramidal- and square-shaped 3D structures. The crawling robot exhibits very stable crawling behaviors and can carry loads while walking. Inspired by origami folding, the pyramidal and square-shaped 3D soft robots exhibit programmable out-of-plane deformations and easy switching between two-dimensional (2D) and 3D structures. The electrically controllable origami deformation allows the 3D soft robots to be used as soft manipulators for grasping and precisely locking 3D objects. This work proves that origami-inspired fold-based assembly of DE actuators is a good reference for the development of soft actuators and future intelligent multifunctional soft robots.

Keywords: Electrical and electronic engineering; Electronic properties and materials.