Electrically Controlled Soft Actuators with Multiple and Reprogrammable Actuation Modes

摘要

New forms of soft actuators have enabled the construction of novel soft robots with various functionalities. Though previous researches have successfully fabricated soft actuators with diverse actuation modes, their actuation capabilities are often fixed once their fabrication is completed. Herein, an electrically controlled soft actuator with multiple and reprogrammable actuation modes is designed and fabricated. The soft actuator is composed of two layers of disulfide liquid crystal elastomer (ss‐LCE) film with embedded resistive heating wires of serpentine shape. The actuation mode of the actuator can be programmed by introducing a certain alignment of liquid crystal mesogens in the ss‐LCE film, which is achieved by the controlled deformation of the actuator at room temperature and the rearrangement of the polymer network through disulfide exchange reaction in the material. The actuation mode of the actuator can be easily erased by heating it up to 180 °C, and a new mode of actuation can be introduced by deforming the actuator to a new shape at room temperature. With the reprogrammable and multiple actuation modes, a reusable and general‐purpose soft actuator is demonstrated herein which can meet various requirements in constructing new soft active devices.