There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Advances in soft robotics, materials science, and stretchable electronics have enabled rapid progress in soft grippers. Here, a critical overview of soft robotic grippers is presented, covering different material sets, physical principles, and device architectures. Soft gripping can be categorized into three technologies, enabling grasping by: a) actuation, b) controlled stiffness, and c) controlled adhesion. A comprehensive review of each type is presented. Compared to rigid grippers, end-effectors fabricated from flexible and soft components can often grasp or manipulate a larger variety of objects. Such grippers are an example of morphological computation, where control complexity is greatly reduced by material softness and mechanical compliance. Advanced materials and soft components, in particular silicone elastomers, shape memory materials, and active polymers and gels, are increasingly investigated for the design of lighter, simpler, and more universal grippers, using the inherent functionality of the materials. Embedding stretchable distributed sensors in or on soft grippers greatly enhances the ways in which the grippers interact with objects. Challenges for soft grippers include miniaturization, robustness, speed, integration of sensing, and control. Improved materials, processing methods, and sensing play an important role in future research.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/adma.201707035

Soft Robotic Grippers.

The area of artificial muscle is a highly interdisciplinary field of research that has evolved rapidly in the last 30 years. Recent advances in nanomaterial fabrication and characterization, specifically carbon nanotubes and nanowires, have had major contributions in the development of artificial muscles. However, what can artificial muscles really do for humans? This question is considered here by first examining nature's solutions to this design problem and then discussing the structure, actuation mechanism, applications, and limitations of recently developed artificial muscles, including highly oriented semicrystalline polymer fibers; nanocomposite actuators; twisted nanofiber yarns; thermally activated shape-memory alloys; ionic-polymer/metal composites; dielectric-elastomer actuators; conducting polymers; stimuli-responsive gels; piezoelectric, electrostrictive, magnetostrictive, and photostrictive actuators; photoexcited actuators; electrostatic actuators; and pneumatic actuators.

Artificial Muscles: Mechanisms, Applications, and Challenges.

Inspired by natural muscle, a key challenge in soft robotics is to develop self-contained electrically driven soft actuators with high strain density. Various characteristics of existing technologies, such as the high voltages required to trigger electroactive polymers ( > 1KV), low strain ( < 10%) of shape memory alloys and the need for external compressors and pressure-regulating components for hydraulic or pneumatic fluidicelastomer actuators, limit their practicality for untethered applications. Here we show a single self-contained soft robust composite material that combines the elastic properties of a polymeric matrix and the extreme volume change accompanying liquid–vapor transition. The material combines a high strain (up to 900%) and correspondingly high stress (up to 1.3 MPa) with low density (0.84 g cm−3). Along with its extremely low cost (about 3 cent per gram), simplicity of fabrication and environment-friendliness, these properties could enable new kinds of electrically driven entirely soft robots. The development of self-contained electrically driven soft actuators with high strain density is difficult. Here the authors show a single self-contained soft robust composite material that combines the elastic properties of a polymeric matrix and the extreme volume change accompanying liquid vapour transition.

/pdf/soft-material-for-soft-actuators-2eqcd4zkdz.pdf

Soft material for soft actuators

Platelet adhesion and spreading is suppressed when a poly(2-methoxyethylacrylate) (PMEA) surface is used, compared with other polymer surfaces. To clarify the reason for this suppression, the relationship among the amount of the plasma protein adsorbed onto PMEA, its secondary structure and platelet adhesion was investigated. Poly(2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate) (PHEMA) and polyacrylate analogous were used as references. The amount of protein adsorbed onto PMEA was very low and similar to that absorbed onto PHEMA. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy was applied to examine changes in the secondary structure of the proteins after adsorption onto the polymer surface. The conformation of the proteins adsorbed onto PHEMA changed considerably, but that of proteins adsorbed onto PMEA differed only a little from the native one. These results suggest that low platelet adhesion and spreading are closely related to the low degree of the denaturation of the protein adsorbed onto PMEA. PMEA could be developed as a promising material to produce a useful blood-contacting surface for medical devices.

Biocompatible aspects of poly ( 2 - methoxyethylacrylate) (PMEA), relationship between protein adsorption and platelet adhesion on PMEA Surface

Shape-Memory Materials

The columnar-to-equiaxed transition (CET) was studied in lead-tin alloys, which were solidified directionally from a chill face. The main parameters analyzed include the temperature gradients, solidification velocities of the liquidus and solidus fronts, and grain size. The transition was observed to occur when the temperature gradient in the melt decreased to values between −0.8 °C/cm and 1 °C/cm. In addition, there is an increase in the velocity of the liquidus front faster than the solidus front, which increases the size of the mushy zone. The size of the equiaxed grains increases with distance from the transition, an observation that was independent of alloy composition. The comparison with available analytical models and the observations indicate that the transition is the result of a competition between coarse columnar dendrites and finer equiaxed dendrites.

Solidification parameters during the columnar-to-equiaxed transition in lead-tin alloys

Understanding the interaction between the parameters involved in the columnar-to-equiaxed transition (CET) has gained considerable attention over the last two decades in the study of the structure of ingot castings. The present investigation was undertaken to investigate experimentally the directional solidification of Al-Zn and Zn-Al (ZA) alloys under different conditions of superheat and heat-transfer efficiencies at the metal/mold interface. The CET is observed; grain sizes are measured and the observations are related to the solidification thermal parameters: cooling rates, growth rates, thermal gradients, and recalescence determined from the temperature vs time curves. The temperature gradient in the melt, measured during the transition, is between –0.338 °C/mm and 0.167 °C/mm. In addition, there is an increase in the velocity of the liquidus front faster than the solidus front, which increases the size of the mushy zone. The size of the equiaxed grains increases with distance from the transition, an observation that was independent of alloy composition. The observations indicate that the transition is the result of a competition between coarse columnar dendrites and finer equiaxed dendrites. The results are compared with those previously obtained in lead-tin alloys.

Alicia Esther Ares

Papers

Shape-Memory Materials

Solidification parameters during the columnar-to-equiaxed transition in lead-tin alloys

Influence of Solidification Thermal Parameters on the Columnar-to-Equiaxed Transition of Aluminum-Zinc and Zinc-Aluminum Alloys

Corrosion susceptibility of Zn–Al alloys with different grains and dendritic microstructures in Nacl solutions

An experimental investigation of the columnar-to-equiaxed grain transition in aluminum–copper hypoeutectic and eutectic alloys