Light-responsive hydrogel microcrawlers, powered and steered with spatially homogeneous illumination

Kropacek, Jindrich and Maslen, Charlie and Gidoni, Paolo and Cigler, Petr and Stepanek, Frantisek and Rehor, Ivan (2024) Light-responsive hydrogel microcrawlers, powered and steered with spatially homogeneous illumination. Soft Robotics, 11 (3). pp. 531-538. (https://doi.org/10.1089/soro.2023.0074)

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Abstract

Sub-millimeter untethered locomoting robots hold promise to radically change multiple areas of human activity such as microfabrication/assembly or health care. To overcome the associated hurdles of such a degree of robot miniaturization, radically new approaches are being adopted, often relying on soft actuating polymeric materials. Here, we present light-driven, crawling microrobots that locomote by a single degree of freedom actuation of their light-responsive tail section. The direction of locomotion is dictated by the robot body design and independent of the spatial modulation of the light stimuli, allowing simultaneous multidirectional motion of multiple robots. Moreover, we present a method for steering such robots by reversibly deforming their front section, using ultraviolet (UV) light as a trigger. The deformation dictates the robot locomotion, performing right- or left-hand turning when the UV is turned on or off respectively. The robots' motion and navigation are not coupled to the position of the light sources, which enables simultaneous locomotion of multiple robots, steering of robots and brings about flexibility with the methods to deliver the light to the place of robot operation.

ORCID iDs

Kropacek, Jindrich, Maslen, Charlie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2995-0918, Gidoni, Paolo, Cigler, Petr, Stepanek, Frantisek and Rehor, Ivan;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:90892
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    20 June 2024
    Published
    8 March 2024
    Accepted
    Notes:This is the accepted version of the following article: Kropacek, J, Maslen, C, Gidoni, P, Cigler, P, Stepanek, F & Rehor, I 2024, 'Light-responsive hydrogel microcrawlers, powered and steered with spatially homogeneous illumination', Soft Robotics, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 531-538. It has now been formally published in final form at Soft Robotics at https://doi.org/10.1089/soro.2023.0074. This original submission version of the article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers’ self-archiving terms and conditions.
    Subjects:Technology > Chemical engineering
    Science > Chemistry
    Department:Faculty of Science > Pure and Applied Chemistry
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:17 Oct 2024 15:03
    Last modified:11 Nov 2024 14:22
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/90892
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