Liquid crystal elastomers support robot navigation

A soft skin enables vine robots to navigate convoluted paths and fragile environments.

Researchers at at the University of California San Diego, USA, integrated a very thin layer of actuators made of liquid crystal elastomer at strategic locations in the soft skin.

The robot is steered by controlling the pressure inside its body and temperature of the actuators. They demonstrated that a robot equipped with this skin could successfully navigate a model of the arteries in a human body. The robot also was able to navigate a model of the interior of a jet engine.

‘Our work represents a step toward small, steerable, soft vine robots for applications in delicate and constrained environments,’ notes Tania K. Morimoto, an associate professor at the University.

Testing of the skin took place on a flexible, vine robot of 3-7mm in diameter and 25cm in length.

The team suggests that the skin could further be adapted for other various soft robotic systems, such as wearable haptic devices, soft grippers and locomotive soft robots.

Next steps include allowing the robot to be remote controlled or autonomous, and reducing its size.