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Design of a Magnetic Soft Inchworm Millirobot Based on Pre-Strained Elastomer with Micropillars

Rather than using longitudinal “muscle” as in biological inchworm, the existing magnetic active elastomer (MAE)-based inchworm robots utilize magnetic torque to pull and push the soft body, which hinders its locomotion mobility. In this paper, a new pre-strained MAE inchworm millirobot with micropil...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wei, Yuzhang, Wu, Zehao, Dai, Ziyi, Zhou, Bingpu, Xu, Qingsong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9844365/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36648808
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8010022
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author Wei, Yuzhang
Wu, Zehao
Dai, Ziyi
Zhou, Bingpu
Xu, Qingsong
author_facet Wei, Yuzhang
Wu, Zehao
Dai, Ziyi
Zhou, Bingpu
Xu, Qingsong
author_sort Wei, Yuzhang
collection PubMed
description Rather than using longitudinal “muscle” as in biological inchworm, the existing magnetic active elastomer (MAE)-based inchworm robots utilize magnetic torque to pull and push the soft body, which hinders its locomotion mobility. In this paper, a new pre-strained MAE inchworm millirobot with micropillars is proposed. The pre-strained elastomer serves as a pre-load muscle to contract the soft body, and the micropillars act as tiny feet to anchor the body during the locomotion. The proposed magnetic inchworm robot features a simple fabrication process that does not require special magnetization equipment. For the first time, the pre-load muscle is introduced in the design of magnetic inchworm robots, making it more like a real inchworm in terms of locomotion mechanism. The locomotion principle and parametric design for the desired locomotion performance have been investigated. Experimental results show that the fabricated magnetic inchworm robot (size: 10 mm × 5 mm, micropillars length: 200 µm, and mass: 262 g) can locomote on a smooth acrylic surface (roughness of 0.3 µm) at the speed of 0.125 body lengths per second, which is comparable with the existing magnetic inchworm robots. Moreover, the locomotion capabilities of the inchworm robot on wet surfaces and inclined planes have been verified via experimental studies.
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spelling pubmed-98443652023-01-18 Design of a Magnetic Soft Inchworm Millirobot Based on Pre-Strained Elastomer with Micropillars Wei, Yuzhang Wu, Zehao Dai, Ziyi Zhou, Bingpu Xu, Qingsong Biomimetics (Basel) Article Rather than using longitudinal “muscle” as in biological inchworm, the existing magnetic active elastomer (MAE)-based inchworm robots utilize magnetic torque to pull and push the soft body, which hinders its locomotion mobility. In this paper, a new pre-strained MAE inchworm millirobot with micropillars is proposed. The pre-strained elastomer serves as a pre-load muscle to contract the soft body, and the micropillars act as tiny feet to anchor the body during the locomotion. The proposed magnetic inchworm robot features a simple fabrication process that does not require special magnetization equipment. For the first time, the pre-load muscle is introduced in the design of magnetic inchworm robots, making it more like a real inchworm in terms of locomotion mechanism. The locomotion principle and parametric design for the desired locomotion performance have been investigated. Experimental results show that the fabricated magnetic inchworm robot (size: 10 mm × 5 mm, micropillars length: 200 µm, and mass: 262 g) can locomote on a smooth acrylic surface (roughness of 0.3 µm) at the speed of 0.125 body lengths per second, which is comparable with the existing magnetic inchworm robots. Moreover, the locomotion capabilities of the inchworm robot on wet surfaces and inclined planes have been verified via experimental studies. MDPI 2023-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9844365/ /pubmed/36648808 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8010022 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wei, Yuzhang
Wu, Zehao
Dai, Ziyi
Zhou, Bingpu
Xu, Qingsong
Design of a Magnetic Soft Inchworm Millirobot Based on Pre-Strained Elastomer with Micropillars
title Design of a Magnetic Soft Inchworm Millirobot Based on Pre-Strained Elastomer with Micropillars
title_full Design of a Magnetic Soft Inchworm Millirobot Based on Pre-Strained Elastomer with Micropillars
title_fullStr Design of a Magnetic Soft Inchworm Millirobot Based on Pre-Strained Elastomer with Micropillars
title_full_unstemmed Design of a Magnetic Soft Inchworm Millirobot Based on Pre-Strained Elastomer with Micropillars
title_short Design of a Magnetic Soft Inchworm Millirobot Based on Pre-Strained Elastomer with Micropillars
title_sort design of a magnetic soft inchworm millirobot based on pre-strained elastomer with micropillars
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9844365/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36648808
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8010022
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