Ultra-fast, programmable, and electronics-free soft robots enabled by snapping metacaps

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of geometrically designed metacaps that enable ultra-fast, electronics-free soft robots with sensing, grasping, and swimming capabilities, surpassing traditional limitations in speed and control.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel metacap design that harnesses nonlinear mechanics to create soft robots with rapid actuation, sensing-free operation, and autonomous movement, advancing soft robotics technology.

Findings

Metacap grippers grasp objects in 3.75 ms upon contact.

Pneumatic grippers with tunable behaviors show little dependence on input rate.

Metacap-enabled swimming robot achieves higher speeds and untethered operation.

Abstract

Soft robots have a myriad of potentials because of their intrinsically compliant bodies, enabling safe interactions with humans and adaptability to unpredictable environments. However, most of them have limited actuation speeds, require complex control systems, and lack sensing capabilities. To address these challenges, here we geometrically design a class of metacaps whose rich nonlinear mechanical behaviors can be harnessed to create soft robots with unprecedented functionalities. Specifically, we demonstrate a sensor-less metacap gripper that can grasp objects in 3.75 ms upon physical contact and a pneumatically actuated gripper with tunable actuation behaviors that have little dependence on the rate of input. Both grippers can be readily integrated into a robotic platform for practical applications. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the metacap enables propelling of a swimming robot, exhibiting amplified swimming speed as well as untethered, electronics-free swimming with tunable speeds. Our metacaps provide new strategies to design the next-generation soft robots that require high transient output energy and are capable of autonomous and electronics-free maneuvering.