Wireless Power Transfer to Electrothermal Liquid Crystal Elastomer Actuators

Wireless actuation of electrically driven soft actuators is of paramount importance for the development of bioinspired soft robotics without physical connection or on-board batteries. Here, we demonstrate untethered electrothermal liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) actuators based on emerging wireless power transfer (WPT) technology. We first design and fabricate electrothermal LCE-based soft actuators that consist of an active LCE layer, a conductive liquid metal-filled polyacrylic acid (LM-PA) layer, and a passive polyimide layer. LM can function not only as an electrothermal transducer to endow resulting soft actuators with electrothermal responsiveness but also as an embedded sensor to track the resistance changes. Various shape-morphing and locomotive modes such as directional bending, chiral helical deformation, and inchworm-inspired crawling can be facilely obtained through appropriately controlling the molecular alignment direction of monodomain LCEs, and the reversible shape-deformation behaviors of resulting soft actuators can be monitored in real-time through resistance changes. Interestingly, untethered electrothermal LCE-based soft actuators have been achieved by designing a closed conductive LM circuit within the actuators and combining it with inductive-coupling WPT technology. When the resulting soft actuator approaches a commercially available wireless power supply system, an induced electromotive force can be generated within the closed LM circuit, which results in Joule heating and wireless actuation. As proof-of-concept illustrations, wirelessly driven soft actuators that can exhibit programmable shape-morphing behaviors are demonstrated. The research disclosed herein can provide insights into the development of bioinspired somatosensory soft actuators, battery-free wireless soft robots, and beyond.