Soft Robots: Biomimetic Locomotion of Electrically Powered “Janus” Soft Robots Using a Liquid Crystal Polymer (Adv. Mater. 36/2019)

Abstract

Soft robots based on liquid-crystal polymers are designed and built by Yue Zhao and co-workers, as described in article number 1903452. They possess two parts that each undergo opposite deformations upon an order–disorder phase transition. This design enables various electrically powered locomotion modes, including moving on a surface through body arching up–straightening down, crawling in a tunnel-like tube through body stretching–contraction, four-leg walking, and two-leg walking while pushing a load.