Stretchable pumps for soft machines

Article

关键词: FABRICATION;    MICROPUMP;    DESIGN;    TRANSPARENT;    ACTUATORS;   

DOI  :  10.1038/s41586-019-1479-6

来源: SCIE

【 摘 要 】

Machines made of soft materials bridge life sciences and engineering(1). Advances in soft materials have led to skin-like sensors and muscle-like actuators for soft robots and wearable devices(1-3). Flexible or stretchable counterparts of most key mechatronic components have been developed(4,5), principally using fluidically driven systems(6-8); other reported mechanisms include electrostatic(9-12), stimuli-responsive gels(13,14) and thermally responsive materials such as liquid metals(15-17) and shape-memory polymers(18). Despite the widespread use of fluidic actuation, there have been few soft counterparts of pumps or compressors, limiting the portability and autonomy of soft machines(4,8). Here we describe a class of soft-matter bidirectional pumps based on charge-injection electrohydrodynamics(19). These solid-state pumps are flexible, stretchable, modular, scalable, quiet and rapid. By integrating the pump into a glove, we demonstrate wearable active thermal management. Embedding the pump in an inflatable structure produces a self-contained fluidic 'muscle'. The stretchable pumps have potential uses in wearable laboratory-on-a-chip and microfluidic sensors, thermally active clothing and autonomous soft robots.

【 授权许可】

Free