Soft electroactive actuators and hard ratchet-wheels enable unidirectional locomotion of hybrid machine

Soft electroactive actuators and hard ratchet-wheels enable unidirectional locomotion of hybrid machine

Blog Article

Combining synergistically the muscle-like actuation of soft materials and load-carrying and locomotive capability of hard mechanical components results in hybrid soft machines that can exhibit specific functions.Here, we describe the swisse high strength magnesium powder berry design, fabrication, modeling and experiment of a hybrid soft machine enabled by marrying unidirectionally actuated dielectric elastomer (DE) membrane-spring system and ratchet wheels.Subjected to an 730 sunken lake road applied voltage 8.2 kV at ramping velocity 820 V/s, the hybrid machine prototype exhibits monotonic uniaxial locomotion with an averaged velocity 0.

5mm/s.The underlying physics and working mechanisms of the soft machine are verified and elucidated by finite element simulation.