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Timely, accurate, and rapid grasping of dynamic change information in magnetic actuation soft robots is essential for advancing their evolution toward intelligent, integrated, and multifunctional systems. However, existing magnetic-actuation soft robots lack effective functions for integrating sensing and actuation. Herein, we demonstrate the integration of distributed fiber optics technology with advanced-programming 3D printing techniques. This integration provides our soft robots unique capabilities such as integrated sensing, precise shape reconstruction, controlled deformation, and sophisticated magnetic navigation. By utilizing an improved magneto-mechanical coupling model and an advanced inversion algorithm, we successfully achieved real-time reconstruction of complex structures, such as 'V', 'N', and 'M' shapes and gripper designs, with a notable response time of 34 ms. Additionally, our robots demonstrate proficiency in magnetic navigation and closed-loop deformation control, making them ideal for operation in confined or obscured environments. This work thus provides a transformative strategy to meet unmet demands in the rapidly growing field of soft robotics, especially in establishing the theoretical and technological foundation for constructing digitized robots.
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This article explores the challenges of continuum and magnetic soft robotics for medical applications, extending from model development to an interdisciplinary perspective. First, we established a unified model framework based on algebra and geometry. The research progress and challenges in principle models, data-driven, and hybrid modeling were then analyzed in depth. Simultaneously, a numerical analysis framework for the principle model was constructed. Furthermore, we expanded the model framework to encompass interdisciplinary research and conducted a comprehensive analysis, including an in-depth case study. Current challenges and the need to address meta-problems were identified through discussion. Overall, this review provides a novel perspective on understanding the challenges and complexities of continuum and magnetic soft robotics in medical applications, paving the way for interdisciplinary researchers to assimilate knowledge in this domain rapidly.
RESUMEN
Liquid crystal elastomer (LCE)-based soft actuators are being studied for their significant shape-changing abilities when they are exposed to heat or light. Nevertheless, their relatively slow response compared with soft magnetic materials limits their application possibilities. Integration of magnetic responsiveness with LCEs has been previously attempted; however, the LCE response is typically jeopardized in high volumes of magnetic microparticles (MMPs). Here, a multistimuli, magnetically active LCE (MLCE), capable of producing programmable and multimodal actuation, is presented. The MLCE, composed of MMPs within an LCE matrix, is generated through extrusion-based 4D printing that enables digital control of mesogen orientation even at a 1:1 (LCE:MMPs) weight ratio, a challenging task to accomplish with other methods. The printed actuators can significantly deform when thermally actuated as well as exhibit fast response to magnetic fields. When combining thermal and magnetic stimuli, modes of actuation inaccessible with only one input are achieved. For instance, the actuator is reconfigured into various states by using the heat-mediated LCE response, followed by subsequent magnetic addressing. The multistimuli capabilities of the MLCE composite expand its applicability where common LCE actuators face limitations in speed and precision. To illustrate, a beam-steering device developed by using these materials is presented.
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Stretchable electrodes are desirable in flexible electronics for the transmission and acquisition of electrical signals, but their fabrication process remains challenging. Herein, we report an approach based on patterned liquid metals (LMs) as stretchable electrodes using a super-hydrophilic laser-induced graphene (SHL-LIG) process with electroless plating copper on a polyimide (PI) film. The LMs/SHL-LIG structures are then transferred from the PI film to an Ecoflex substrate as stretchable electrodes with an ultralow sheet resistance of 3.54 mΩ per square and excellent stretchability up to 480% in elongation. Furthermore, these electrodes show outstanding performances of only 8% electrical resistance changes under a tensile strain of 300%, and strong immunity to temperature and pressure changes. As demonstration examples, these electrodes are integrated with a stretchable strain sensing system and a smart magnetic soft robot toward practical applications.
RESUMEN
Driven by the aim of realizing functional robotic systems at the milli- and submillimetre scale for biomedical applications, the area of magnetically driven soft devices has received significant recent attention. This has resulted in a new generation of magnetically controlled soft robots with patterns of embedded, programmable domains throughout their structures. This type of programmable magnetic profiling equips magnetic soft robots with shape programmable memory and can be achieved through the distribution of discrete domains (voxels) with variable magnetic densities and magnetization directions. This approach has produced highly compliant, and often bio-inspired structures that are well suited to biomedical applications at small scales, including microfluidic transport and shape-forming surgical catheters. However, to unlock the full potential of magnetic soft robots with improved designs and control, significant challenges remain in their compositional optimization and fabrication. This review considers recent advances and challenges in the interlinked optimization and fabrication aspects of programmable domains within magnetic soft robots. Through a combination of improvements in the computational capacity of novel optimization methods with advances in the resolution, material selection and automation of existing and novel fabrication methods, significant further developments in programmable magnetic soft robots may be realized.