A soft, bistable valve for autonomous control of soft actuators

• Published in: Science robotics Vol. 3; no. 16
• Main Authors: Rothemund, Philipp, Ainla, Alar, Belding, Lee, Preston, Daniel J, Kurihara, Sarah, Suo, Zhigang, Whitesides, George M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 21.03.2018

Almost all pneumatic and hydraulic actuators useful for mesoscale functions rely on hard valves for control. This article describes a soft, elastomeric valve that contains a bistable membrane, which acts as a mechanical "switch" to control air flow. A structural instability-often called &q...