Shape Programmable Magnetic Pixel Soft Robot
This work addresses the design and use restrictions in magnetic soft robots for applications requiring adaptable shape control, though it appears incremental in improving existing methods.
The paper tackled the problem of magnetic soft robots having fixed magnetic programming by introducing a magnetic pixel robot with shape programmable function, achieving flexible and repeatable behavior regulation through a magnetic encoding technique.
Magnetic response soft robot realizes programmable shape regulation with the help of magnetic field and produces various actions. The shape control of magnetic soft robot is based on the magnetic anisotropy caused by the orderly distribution of magnetic particles in the elastic matrix. In the previous technologies, magnetic programming is coupled with the manufacturing process, and the orientation of magnetic particles cannot be modified, which brings restrictions to the design and use of magnetic soft robot. This paper presents a magnetic pixel robot with shape programmable function. By encapsulating NdFeB/gallium composites into silicone shell, a thermo-magnetic response functional film with lattice structure are fabricated. Basing on thermal-assisted magnetization technique, we realized the discrete magnetization region distribution on the film. Therefore, we proposed a magnetic coding technique to realize the mathematical response action design of software robot. Using these methods, we prepared several magnetic soft robots based on origami structure. The experiments show that the behavior mode of robot can be flexibly and repeatedly regulated by magnetic encoding technique. This work provides a basis for the programmed shape regulation and motion design of soft robot.