Robotic Pick‐and‐Place Operations in Multifunctional Liquid Crystal Elastomers

• Published in: Advanced intelligent systems Vol. 4; no. 12
• Main Authors: Lyu, Pengrong, Astam, Mert Orhan, Sánchez-Somolinos, Carlos, Liu, Danqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.12.2022; Wiley
• Subjects: Actuation; Actuators; Design; Elastomers; electrically driven; External pressure; liquid crystal elastomers; Liquid crystals; Load bearing components; multifunctional single materials; Phase transitions; pick-and-place operations; Polyvinyl alcohol; Robot arms; Robotics; Robots; soft robotic arms; Soft robotics; Suction; Topography; Transportation
• ISSN: 2640-4567; 2640-4567
• DOI: 10.1002/aisy.202200280

Pick‐and‐place operations for transporting objects precisely to a target position are a prominent function of (soft‐) robotic systems. Therefore, there is great interest in industry to improve the characteristic gripping, holding, and releasing methods involved in pick‐and‐place operations. Within living organisms such as octopi, nature demonstrates that multiple types of conjointly working actuators are required for flexible pick‐and‐place operations. Herein, a multifunctional soft robotic arm is developed, capable of transporting an object within 3D space. The soft robotic arm consists of two structural actuators (rotating base and lifting unit) and a suction cup‐based gripper. The structural actuator acts as both the load bearing and actuating components of the robotic system. Yet, the gripper is the crucial innovation within the robotic arm. A cephalopod‐limb‐inspired gripper functioning through the reversible flat‐to‐conical deformation of azimuthally aligned liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) films is proposed. The pressure‐generating actuation mechanism of the gripper means that no external device is needed to operate the gripping function. Akin to natural systems, the in‐tandem operation of the actuators in the soft robotic arm allows for multifactored tasks. Yet, the design achieves this through the use of a single material, which is not innate in natural archetypes. Pick‐and‐place operations to precisely transport objects are common and essential functions in robotic systems. Herein, a single‐material soft robotic arm is developed, capable of multifactored pick‐and‐place operations within 3D space. This is achieved through the cephalopod limb‐inspired gripper, mimicking the natural reversible vacuum self‐generation process. The gripper can generate attachment forces comparable to the sucker of a live octopus.