Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the three-wavelength modulated multi-directional walker robot.
Just like one reviewer said, “controlling the locomotion by turning on and off the light is easier than scanning the light on the actuator with right speed and in right position.” We believe that this strategy could be further adopted to build four or even more independent photothermal conversion systems in hierarchical structured polymeric matrices to synthesize multi-wavelength modulated soft actuators with more functionalities. In our lab, this selective stimulation strategy is now applied in fabricating microscale soft robots with complex actuation modes through 3D printing technique. More exciting results will be reported in the near future.
Read the complete story at Nature Communications.4
References
- Li, Q. Photoactive Functional Soft Materials: Preparation, Properties, and Applications. (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, 2019).
- Wang, M., Lin, B. P. & Yang, H. A plant tendril mimic soft actuator with phototunable bending and chiral twisting motion modes. Nat. Commun. 7, 13981 (2016).
- Zuo, B., Wang, M., Lin, B. P. & Yang, H. Photomodulated tricolor-changing artificial flowers. Chem. Mater. 30, 8079‒8088 (2018).
- Zuo, B., Wang, M., Lin, B. P. & Yang, H. Visible and infrared three-wavelength modulated multi-directional actuators. Nat. Commun. 10, 4539 (2019).