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Optically driven, smart material based soft microrobotics (OPTOPUS)

Tampere University
9.1.2018–8.3.2021
Area of focusTechnology

Soft robotics offers technical innovations to overcome the grand challenges encountered in conventional rigid machines that relate to adaptive motion and safety concerns. However, presently available actuation and control strategies prevent device miniaturization. OPTOPUS aims at developing a new type of wireless soft robotic system with overall size in a millimetre range, that is capable of sophisticated functions when fuelled by light energy only. Drawing from physics, microrobotics, chemistry and material science, we will devise soft-bodied robots that perform jumping and 2D locomotion steering with light, as well as miniature actuators that can recognize and grasp objects based on their colours.

The robots will be realized using light-responsive liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs). LCEs can be fabricated with well-defined size and shape, in combination with precise control over molecular order due to the liquid crystallinity. Upon illumination, the molecular alignment within the polymeric network can be reversibly controlled with the help of photoswitchable molecules, which in turn leads to a macroscopic shape-change (actuation) in the material. Combining LCE materials and advanced optical design, road is open for developing new types of sophisticated soft microrobotic systems with light-controllable functions and automation intelligence.

The general objective of the OPTOPUS project is to develop a control strategy for locomotion in LCE microrobots, and to build up novel concepts for intelligent, autonomous soft microactuators. This objective is ambitious yet feasible, with solid foundations laid on our preliminary results. More specifically, we will (i) optically steer the locomotion of soft-bodied multi-leg robots, (ii) devise miniature robots that can undergo light-triggered jumping, and (iii) “teach” the robots how to autonomously recognize and grip objects of specific colour.

This project will provide novel perspectives for smart-material-based micro-devices and their automation, thereby advancing the future of microrobotics and adding to fundamental understanding of interaction between light and soft matter at the micro-scale.

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Funding source

Academy of Finland, Postdoctoral researcher

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