Re-foldable origami-inspired bidirectional twisting of artificial muscles reproduces biological motion

Summary Recent advances in soft-matter artificial muscles enable machines, especially robots, to reproduce muscle-like actuation of biological organisms, yet there remain substantial and persistent challenges to develop advanced artificial muscles capable of mimicking flexible, controllable, and versatile biological motions. Here, we introduce re-foldable origami strategy into artificial muscles that can use different pre-programmed crease patterns to achieve multimode morphing. Re-foldable square-twist artificial muscles derived from re-foldable square-twist origami is demonstrated, where different twisting directions of re-foldable square-twist artificial muscles are induced through differences in torsional resistance resulting from applying vacuum power on two chambers in sequence. Re-foldable squire-twist artificial muscles can exhibit a complex compound motion coupling twisting, bending, and contraction motions into one, allowing them to flexibly and vividly mimic versatile biological motions by a single muscle or multimuscle combination (like “building bricks”), including hand grasping, bicep stretching, and the bidirectional twisting of the neck, wrist, or ankle.

[1]  Tangchun Wu,et al.  Reconstruction of the full transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in Wuhan , 2020, Nature.

[2]  Kyu-Jin Cho,et al.  Soft Robotic Blocks: Introducing SoBL, a Fast-Build Modularized Design Block , 2016, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[3]  P. Polygerinos,et al.  Mechanical Programming of Soft Actuators by Varying Fiber Angle , 2015 .

[4]  Samuel M. Felton,et al.  A method for building self-folding machines , 2014, Science.

[5]  ChenJi,et al.  Modeling and Validation of a Novel Bending Actuator for Soft Robotics Applications , 2016 .

[6]  WeiYing,et al.  A Novel, Variable Stiffness Robotic Gripper Based on Integrated Soft Actuating and Particle Jamming , 2016 .

[7]  Marina Pilz da Cunha,et al.  A Soft Transporter Robot Fueled by Light , 2020, Advanced science.

[8]  Chen Ji,et al.  A Reconfigurable Omnidirectional Soft Robot Based on Caterpillar Locomotion. , 2018, Soft robotics.

[9]  Jamie L. Branch,et al.  Robotic Tentacles with Three‐Dimensional Mobility Based on Flexible Elastomers , 2013, Advanced materials.

[10]  Zhenishbek Zhakypov,et al.  Designing minimal and scalable insect-inspired multi-locomotion millirobots , 2019, Nature.

[11]  Huayong Yang,et al.  Controllable Stiffness Origami “Skeletons” for Lightweight and Multifunctional Artificial Muscles , 2020, Advanced Functional Materials.

[12]  A. Concas,et al.  Knitting and weaving artificial muscles , 2017, Science Advances.

[13]  Wei Wang,et al.  Pleated Film-Based Soft Twisting Actuator , 2019, International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing.

[14]  Yazheng Yang,et al.  Active Reconfigurable Tristable Square‐Twist Origami , 2020, Advanced Functional Materials.

[15]  Lei Wu,et al.  In Situ Swelling-Gated Chemical Sensing Actuator , 2020 .

[16]  Soroush Kamrava,et al.  Origami-based Building Blocks for Modular Construction of Foldable Structures , 2017, Scientific Reports.

[17]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  A Resilient, Untethered Soft Robot , 2014 .

[18]  Jihong Yan,et al.  A New Spiral-Type Inflatable Pure Torsional Soft Actuator. , 2018, Soft robotics.

[19]  G. Whitesides,et al.  Buckling Pneumatic Linear Actuators Inspired by Muscle , 2016 .

[20]  Qiang Huang,et al.  A bioinspired multilegged soft millirobot that functions in both dry and wet conditions , 2018, Nature Communications.

[21]  Thomas C. Hull,et al.  Origami structures with a critical transition to bistability arising from hidden degrees of freedom. , 2015, Nature materials.

[22]  Yongsheng Chen,et al.  Construction of a Fish‐like Robot Based on High Performance Graphene/PVDF Bimorph Actuation Materials , 2016, Advanced science.

[23]  G. Whitesides,et al.  Slit Tubes for Semisoft Pneumatic Actuators , 2018, Advanced materials.

[24]  SalamonPeter,et al.  Versatile and Dexterous Soft Robotic Leg System for Untethered Operations , 2016 .

[25]  Zhizhu He,et al.  Ferromagnetic Liquid Metal Putty‐Like Material with Transformed Shape and Reconfigurable Polarity , 2020, Advanced materials.

[26]  Hod Lipson,et al.  Soft material for soft actuators , 2017, Nature Communications.

[27]  Kon-Well Wang,et al.  Programmable Self‐Locking Origami Mechanical Metamaterials , 2018, Advanced materials.

[28]  George M. Whitesides,et al.  A three-dimensional actuated origami-inspired transformable metamaterial with multiple degrees of freedom , 2016, Nature Communications.

[29]  Jie Zhang,et al.  Autonomous convergence and divergence of the self-powered soft liquid metal vehicles , 2015 .

[30]  Weiqiu Chen,et al.  Soft Ultrathin Electronics Innervated Adaptive Fully Soft Robots , 2018, Advanced materials.

[31]  Chao Zhang,et al.  Advanced Artificial Muscle for Flexible Material‐Based Reconfigurable Soft Robots , 2019, Advanced science.

[32]  Amir Hosein Sakhaei,et al.  Multimaterial 3D Printed Soft Actuators Powered by Shape Memory Alloy Wires , 2019, Sensors and Actuators A: Physical.

[33]  G. Whitesides,et al.  Buckling of Elastomeric Beams Enables Actuation of Soft Machines , 2015, Advanced materials.

[34]  Stephen A. Morin,et al.  Using “Click‐e‐Bricks” to Make 3D Elastomeric Structures , 2014, Advanced materials.

[35]  Yong Wang,et al.  Origami-inspired, on-demand deployable and collapsible mechanical metamaterials with tunable stiffness , 2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[36]  Shawn A. Chester,et al.  Printing ferromagnetic domains for untethered fast-transforming soft materials , 2018, Nature.

[37]  P. Reis,et al.  Soft Actuation of Structured Cylinders through Auxetic Behavior , 2015 .

[38]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Controlled flight of a microrobot powered by soft artificial muscles , 2019, Nature.

[39]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Soft Robotic Grippers for Biological Sampling on Deep Reefs , 2016, Soft robotics.

[40]  Shane K. Mitchell,et al.  Hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic actuators with muscle-like performance , 2018, Science.

[41]  Hao Su,et al.  Leveraging elastic instabilities for amplified performance: Spine-inspired high-speed and high-force soft robots , 2020, Science Advances.

[42]  Tingyu Cheng,et al.  Fast-moving soft electronic fish , 2017, Science Advances.

[43]  Guoyong Mao,et al.  Soft electromagnetic actuators , 2020, Science Advances.

[44]  Hong-Bo Sun,et al.  Sensitively Humidity‐Driven Actuator Based on Photopolymerizable PEG‐DA Films , 2017 .