Using Explosions to Power a Soft Robot

摘要

Soft robots have emerged as a new set of machines capable of manipulation and locomotion. Pneumatic expansion of a network of microchannels (pneu-nets) fabricated in organic elastomers, using low-pressure air (< 10 psi; 0.7 atm; 71 kPa), provides a simple method of achieving complex movements : grasping and walking. Despite their advantages (simplicity of fabrication, actuation, and control; low cost; light weight), pneu-nets have the disadvantage that actuation using them is slow, in part because the viscosity of air limits the rate at which the gas can be delivered through tubes to fill and expand the microchannels. Herein, we demonstrate the rapid actuation of pneu-nets using a chemical reaction (the combustion of methane) to generate explosive bursts of pressure.