Issue 31, 2023

A novel electric stimulus-responsive micro-actuator for powerful biomimetic motions

Abstract

Limited by the surface-to-volume ratio of structural materials, it is a great challenge to achieve high output performance in a millimetre-sized actuator. Traditional rigid actuators can achieve higher vibration frequencies above the centimetre size, but their working performance will be greatly reduced below the millimetre size, and even cannot maintain the vibration. A micro-actuator is highly essential for the miniaturisation of bionic robots. In this work, we present a novel driving principle by utilising the plasmonic thermal energy generated by electric stimulation to drive the vibration of the micro-actuator. In the design, the micro-actuator is composed of two chambers and elastic elements, which is similar to the design of a micro-piston. By utilising the thermal energy of the plasma, the actuator can generate high-frequency vibration (resonant frequency of 140 Hz), and the simple structural design can achieve a large vibration amplitude on a millimetre scale. Based on this powerful actuator, several applications are presented, such as fast crawling and jumping. The good performance of the electric stimulus-responsive micro-actuator suggests promising applications ranging from millimetre-scale robots in confined spaces to detection, search and rescue.

Graphical abstract: A novel electric stimulus-responsive micro-actuator for powerful biomimetic motions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Mme 2023
Accepted
10 Upu 2023
First published
10 Upu 2023

Nanoscale, 2023,15, 12933-12943

A novel electric stimulus-responsive micro-actuator for powerful biomimetic motions

R. Yun, J. Che, Z. Liu, X. Yan and M. Qi, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 12933 DOI: 10.1039/D3NR01866K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements