Soft Microrobots Based on Photoresponsive Materials

Abstract

As there are no robotic components that can be easily integrated in robots at the microscale, researchers are increasingly adopting soft and smart polymers to achieve robotic functionalities in such microrobots. Materials that exhibit a mechanical response to external stimuli are inherently suited to work as actuators within these tiny robotic devices. This chapter discusses the case of photoresponsive materials, and, in particular, photothermal liquid-crystal elastomers (LCEs) used as soft microrobots controlled by structured light fields. The use of such materials poses peculiar challenges, which require understanding the physics of the mechanical response, but have the potential of providing the microrobots with unprecedented capabilities.