Light-controlled versatile manipulation of liquid metal droplets: a gateway to future liquid robots.

The controlled actuation of liquid metal (LM) droplets has recently shown great potential in developing smart actuating systems for applications in robotics. However, there is a lack of a simple approach for the precise manipulation of multiple LM droplets in a 2D plane, which hinders the development of complex control over droplets for realizing useful robotic applications. To overcome this challenge, here, a versatile and powerful light-induced manipulation of LM droplets is presented.

A Liquid Metal Artificial Muscle.

Artificial muscles possess a vast potential in accelerating the development of robotics, exoskeletons, and prosthetics. Although a variety of emerging actuator technologies are reported, they suffer from several issues, such as high driving voltages, large hysteresis, and water intolerance. Here, a liquid metal artificial muscle (LMAM) is demonstrated, based on the electrochemically tunable interfacial tension of liquid metal to mimic the contraction and extension of muscles.

Reversible Underwater Adhesion for Soft Robotic Feet by Leveraging Electrochemically Tunable Liquid Metal Interfaces.

Soft crawling robots have potential applications for surveillance, rescue, and detection in complex environments. Despite this, most existing soft crawling robots either use nonadjustable feet to passively induce asymmetry in friction to actuate or are only capable of moving on surfaces with specific designs. Thus, robots often lack the ability to move along arbitrary directions in a two-dimensional (2D) plane or in unpredictable environments such as wet surfaces.