Future robots and intelligent systems will autonomously navigate in unstructured environments and closely collaborate with humans; integrated with our bodies and minds, they will allow us to surpass our physical limitations. Traditional robots are mostly built from rigid, metallic components and electromagnetic motors, which make them heavy, expensive, unsafe near people, and ill‐suited for unpredictable environments. By contrast, biological organisms make extensive use of soft materials and radically outperform robots in terms of dexterity, agility, and adaptability. Particularly, natural muscle—a masterpiece of evolution—has long inspired researchers to create “artificial muscles” in an attempt to replicate its versatility, seamless integration with sensing, and ability to self‐heal. To date, natural muscle remains unmatched in all‐round performance, but rapid advancements in soft robotics have brought viable alternatives closer than ever. Herein, the recent development of hydraulically amplified self‐healing electrostatic (HASEL) actuators, a new class of high‐performance, self‐sensing artificial muscles that couple electrostatic and hydraulic forces to achieve diverse modes of actuation, is discussed; current designs match or exceed natural muscle in many metrics. Research on materials, designs, fabrication, modeling, and control systems for HASEL actuators is detailed. In each area, research opportunities are identified, which together lays out a roadmap for actuators with drastically improved performance. With their unique versatility and wide potential for further improvement, HASEL actuators are poised to play an important role in a paradigm shift that fundamentally challenges the current limitations of robotic hardware toward future intelligent systems that replicate the vast capabilities of biological organisms.
In recent years, magnetism has gained an enormous amount of interest among researchers for actuating different sizes and types of bio/soft robots, which can be via an electromagnetic‐coil system, or a system of moving permanent magnets. Different actuation strategies are used in robots with magnetic actuation having a number of advantages in possible realization of microscale robots such as bioinspired microrobots, tetherless microrobots, cellular microrobots, or even normal size soft robots such as electromagnetic soft robots and medical robots. This review provides a summary of recent research in magnetically actuated bio/soft robots, discussing fabrication processes and actuation methods together with relevant applications in biomedical area and discusses future prospects of this way of actuation for possible improvements in performance of different types of bio/soft robots.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10453215
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Volume:
- 31
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 1616-301X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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