Researchers develop ‘soft’ valves to make entirely soft robots

Tuesday, December 11, 2018 - 23:10 in Physics & Chemistry

In recent years, an entirely new class of robot — inspired by natural forms and built using soft, flexible elastomers — has taken the field by storm, with designs capable of gripping objects, walking, and even jumping. Yet despite those innovations, so-called “soft” robots still carried some “hard” parts. In particular, said Philipp Rothemund, a doctoral student working in the lab of Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor George Whitesides, the inflation and deflation of the robots was typically controlled by off-the-shelf pneumatic valves — until now. Rothemund and postdoctoral fellow Daniel Preston have created a soft valve that could replace such hard components, and could lead to the creation of entirely soft robots. The valve’s structure can also be used to produce unique, oscillatory behavior and could even be used to build soft logic circuits. The valve is described in a recently published paper in Science Robotics. In addition to Rothemund...

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