At Rutgers University, engineers have created a 3D printed smart gel that walks underwater. It can also grab objects and move them. Rutgers University researchers have invented a 3D printed smart gel that can walk underwater, grab objects, and move them around.
The watery creation could lead to soft robots that can walk underwater and bump into things without damaging them. It could also lead to artificial heart, stomach, and other muscles. That, plus devices for diagnosing diseases, detecting and delivering drugs, and performing underwater inspections.
Key advantages of soft materials like the smart gel is that they are flexible, easy to miniaturize, and often cheaper to manufacture than hard materials. Devices made of soft materials are typically simple to design and control compared with mechanically more complex hard devices.
Howon Lee states that
“Our 3D printed smart gel has great potential in biomedical engineering because it resembles tissues in the human body that also contain lots of water and are very soft,” … “It can be used for many different types of underwater devices that mimic aquatic life like the octopus.”
-Howon Lee, Assistant professor in the Dept of Mechanical & Aerospace engineering
3D Printed Smart Gel is Activated by Electricity
The study, published online in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, focuses on a 3D printed hydrogel that moves and changes shape when activated by electricity. Hydrogels can stay solid despite their 70-plus percent water content. During the Additive Manufacturing process, light is projected on a light-sensitive solution that becomes a gel. The hydrogel is placed in a salty water solution (or electrolyte) and two thin wires apply electricity to trigger motion; walking forward, reversing course, and grabbing and moving objects.
The humanoid walker that the team created is about one inch tall.
The movement and speed is controlled by changing its dimensions (thin is faster than thick), and the gel bends or changes shape depending on the strength of the salty water solution and electric field. The gel resembles muscles that contract because it’s made of soft material, has more than 70 percent water, and responds to electrical stimulation.
This study demonstrates how our 3D printing technique can expand the design, size and versatility of this smart gel,” … “Our microscale 3D printing technique allowed us to create unprecedented motions.”
-Howon Lee-
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Source: Rutgers Today
