Programmable Shape-Shifting Soft Robotic Structure Using Liquid Metal Electromagnetic Actuators.

Constant development of soft robots, stretchable electronics, or flexible medical devices forces the research to look for new flexible structures that can change their shapes under external physical stimuli. This study presents a soft robotic structure that can change its shape into different three-dimensional (3D) configurations in response to electric current flown through the embedded liquid-metal conductors enabling electromagnetic actuation. The proposed structure is composed of volumetric pixels (voxels) connected in series where each can be independently controlled by the inputs of electrical current and vacuum pressure. A single voxel is made up of a granular core (GC) with an outer shell made of silicone rubber. The shell has embedded channels filled with liquid metal. The structure changes its shape under the Lorentz force produced by the liquid metal channel under applied electrical current. The GC allows the structure to maintain its shape after deformation even when the current is shut off. This is possible due to the granular jamming effect. In this study, we show the concept, the results of multiphysics simulation, and experimental characterization, including among other techniques, such as 3D digital image correlation or 3D magnetic field scanning, to study the different properties of the structure. We prove that the proposed structure can morph into many different shapes with the amplitude higher than 10 mm, and this process can be both fully reversible and repeatable.

Miniature coils for producing pulsed inplane magnetic fields for nanospintronics.

Nanospintronic and related research often requires the application of quickly rising magnetic field pulses in the plane of the studied planar structure. We have designed and fabricated sub-millimeter-sized coils capable of delivering pulses of the magnetic field up to ∼500 Oe in the plane of the sample with the rise time of the order of 10 ns. The placement of the sample above the coil allows for easy access to its surface with manipulators or light beams for, e.g., Kerr microscopy. We use the fabricated coil to drive magnetic domain walls in 1 µm wide permalloy wires and measure magnetic domain wall velocity as a function of the applied magnetic field.