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Chin. Phys. B, 2022, Vol. 31(12): 128801    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/ac6dbe
INTERDISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Prev   Next  

Low-voltage soft robots based on carbon nanotube/polymer electrothermal composites

Qi Wang(王琪)1, Ying-Qiong Yong(雍颖琼)2, and Zhi-Ming Bai(白智明)1,†
1 School of Civil and Resource Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China;
2 R&D Department, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Beijing 100076, China
Abstract  Nowadays, soft robots have become a research hot spot due to high degree of freedom, adaptability to the environment and safer interaction with humans. The carbon nanotube (CNT)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) electrothermal composites have attracted wide attention in the field of flexible actuations due to large deformation at low voltages. Here, the preparation process of CNT/PDMS composites was designed and optimized, and electrothermal actuators (ETAs) were fabricated by cutting the CNT/PDMS composite films into a "U" shape and coating conductive adhesive. The deformation performance of the ETAs with different thicknesses at different voltages was studied. At a low voltage of about 7 V, the ETA has a deformation rate of up to 93%. Finally, two kinds of electrothermal soft robots (ETSRs) with four-legged and three-legged structures were fabricated, and their inchworm-like motion characteristics were studied. The ETSR2 has the best motion performance due to the moderate thickness and three-legged electrode structure.
Keywords:  carbon nanotube (CNT)      polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)      electrothermal actuator      soft robot  
Received:  27 December 2021      Revised:  22 April 2022      Accepted manuscript online:  07 May 2022
PACS:  88.30.rh (Carbon nanotubes)  
  66.70.-f (Nonelectronic thermal conduction and heat-pulse propagation in solids;thermal waves)  
  45.40.Ln (Robotics)  
Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51602021) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. FRF-TP-18-023A2).
Corresponding Authors:  Zhi-Ming Bai     E-mail:  baizhiming2008@126.com

Cite this article: 

Qi Wang(王琪), Ying-Qiong Yong(雍颖琼), and Zhi-Ming Bai(白智明) Low-voltage soft robots based on carbon nanotube/polymer electrothermal composites 2022 Chin. Phys. B 31 128801

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