# All-Light Remote Driving and Programming of Soft Actuator Based on Selective Laser Stimulation and Modification

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a light-based method to remotely control and reprogram soft robots, inspired by pillworms, enabling them to adapt their movements and perform various tasks.

## Contribution

A novel approach using infrared light and laser-melted paraffin wax to reprogram soft actuators without physical constraints or damage.

## Key findings

- The paraffin wax shell can control and reprogram actuator motion for multiple tasks like grasping and crawling.
- The method allows for reversible control and adaptation to external stimuli without damaging the actuator.
- The approach is extendable to other materials and stimuli-responsive systems for autonomous soft robots.

## Abstract

Soft robots are advantageous due to their flexibility, ability to interact with humans, and multifunctional adaptability. However, developing soft robots that are unrestrained and can be reprogrammed for reversible control without causing damage remains a significant challenge. The majority of soft robots have a bilayer structure with internal stress, which limits their motion to pre-programmed anisotropic structures. Taking inspiration from pillworms found in nature, we propose an approach for controlling and reprogramming the motion of actuators using infrared light as the driver and a laser-melted paraffin wax (PW) shell as the controller. The dual-purpose shell can not only protect the actuator but can also alter its initial motion behavior to achieve multiple programming, profile modeling, object grasping, and directional crawling tasks, thereby enabling active changes to the motion strategy in response to external stimuli. This method can also be extended to other materials with similar properties and multi-stimulus responses, offering a new pathway for developing unconstrained, autonomous soft robots and intelligent devices.