Flexible robot: the sun will jump in the sun

Reporters learned from Hefei University of Technology, the school successfully developed a low voltage and sunlight can produce large deformation of the new flexible thin-film carbon nanotube actuators and simulation of human "finger" hand movements, design and development The flexible "robot" that generates jumping motion under the external light stimulus has been published in "Advanced Functional Materials", an important international academic journal. The flexible intelligent driver can directly convert the external energy such as light, electricity, heat and humidity into the mechanical deformation of the device itself without the cumbersome energy conversion device, thus attracting scientists' extensive research interests. However, the research on flexible drivers with simple structure, rapid large deformation, multi-source response and simulation of complex motions such as flight and jump still faces many challenges. Hefei University of Technology research team in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Suzhou nano, designed and prepared with the shape of the carbon nanotube / polymer double-layer film drive can be low voltage and light irradiation, from tube to flat form quickly large Deformed, and returned to the original crimp shape after the electrical signal or illumination has been removed. Researchers will overlap the driver's two ends to simulate the "middle finger" in the thumb and middle finger, thus building a light-driven jump "robot." The selective asymmetric deformation of the two ends of the robot under illumination results in the accumulation and instantaneous release of the elastic potential energy, resulting in a jump of more than 5 times the height of itself, accompanied by an aerial roll action. By changing the direction of incident light, the robot can also produce periodic wobbling movements similar to tumbler. "Jumping involves energy storage and instantaneous release. Flexible biomimetic smart-drive devices provide a completely new way of jumping without the need to accumulate, store and quickly release energy through structural designs such as springs and gears." Hefei Researcher Gong Hu said that they have further developed crawler robots, bionic manipulators, and bionic flowers blooming under the sun's rays. This achievement has a wide range of application prospects in the fields of intelligent bionic and flexible sensing.