Geometrically Enabled Soft Electroactuators via Laser Cutting

Abstract

Recent advances in soft electroactuators (EAs) have inspired diverse novel artificial muscles and dexterous robots. Despite a rapidly expanding library of electroactive materials, precise and repeatable structuring remains a challenge. Existing EAs often involve post‐synthesis hand‐assembling of supportive components such as hingers, linkages, adhesives, and coatings to fulfill demanding functions. Following a different enabling strategy, herein, a straightforward laser‐patterning approach to directly embed functional 2D structures into electroactive polypyrrole (PPy) films is presented, thereby transforming their typical bending actuation into various demanding action modes including squeezing, gripping, flapping, and lifting in an electrolyte solution analog to body fluids in vivo. Such geometrically enabled movements prove controllable and modulable and are dictated primarily by the embedded patterns rather than materials or specific fabrication approach. The integrity of our soft EAs not only avoids laborious assembling and device fatigues but also further enables systematic structural design and geometrical fine‐tuning of deformations through fast mechanical simulation. This design strategy suggests broad opportunities in pattern‐augmented capabilities for next‐generation EAs and soft robotics.