Living organisms with motor and sensor units integrated seamlessly demonstrate effective adaptation to dynamically changing environments. Drawing inspiration from cohesive integration of skeletal muscles and sensory skins in these organisms, we present a design strategy of soft robots, primarily consisting of an electronic skin (e-skin) and an artificial muscle, that naturally couples multifunctional sensing and on-demand actuation in a biocompatible platform. We introduce an solution-based method to create an e-skin layer with diverse sensing materials (e.g., silver nanowires, reduced graphene oxide, MXene, and conductive polymers) incorporated within a polymer matrix (e.g., polyimide), imitating complex skin receptors to perceive various stimuli. Biomimicry designs (e.g., starfish and chiral seedpods) of the robots enable various motions (e.g., bending, expanding, and twisting) on demand and realize good fixation and stress-free contact with tissues. Furthermore, integration of a battery-free wireless module into these robots enables operation and communication without tethering, thus enhancing the safety and biocompatibility as minimally invasive implants. Demonstrations range from a robotic cuff encircling a blood vessel for detecting blood pressure, to a robotic gripper holding onto a bladder for tracking bladder volume, an ingestible robot residing inside stomach for pH sensing and on-site drug delivery, and a robotic patch wrapping onto a beating heart for quantifying cardiac contractility, temperature and applying cardiac pacing, highlighting the application versatilities and potentials of the nature-inspired soft robots. Our designs establish a universal strategy with a broad range of sensing and responsive materials, to form integrated soft robots for medical technology and beyond.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3665801/v1 | DOI Listing |
BMC Geriatr
January 2025
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (Rehabilitation Center), Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, No. 107, Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan , Shandong, 250012, China.
Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a high-risk factor for dementia and dysphagia; therefore, early intervention is vital. The effectiveness of intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) targeting the right dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) remains unclear.
Methods: Thirty-six participants with MCI were randomly allocated to receive real (n = 18) or sham (n = 18) iTBS.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, P. R. China.
Aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active fluorescent hydrogel materials have found extensive applications in soft robotics, wearable electronics, information encryption, and biomedicine. Nevertheless, it continues to be difficult to create hydrogels that are both highly luminescent and possess strong mechanical capabilities. This study introduces a combined approach of prestretching and solvent exchange to create anisotropic luminous hydrogels made of poly(methacrylic acid-methacrylamide).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMater Horiz
January 2025
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Recent efforts have focused on developing stimuli-responsive soft actuators that mimic the adaptive, complex, and reversible movements found in natural species. However, most hydrogel actuators are limited by their inability to combine wavelength-selectivity with reprogrammable shape changes, thereby reducing their degree of freedom in motion. To address this challenge, we present a novel strategy that integrates these capabilities by grafting fluorophores onto temperature-responsive hydrogels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Coloproctol
December 2024
Division of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Surgery, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Purpose: Robot-assisted surgery is readily applied to every type of colorectal surgeries. However, studies showing the safety and feasibility of robotic surgery (RS) have dealt with rectal cancer more than colon cancer. This study aimed to investigate how technical advantages of RS can translate into actual clinical outcomes that represent postoperative systemic response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Robotics Institute and State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Hydrogel-based soft machines are promising in diverse applications, such as biomedical electronics and soft robotics. However, current fabrication techniques generally struggle to construct multimaterial three-dimensional hydrogel architectures for soft machines and robots, owing to the inherent hydrogel softness from the low-density polymer network nature. Herein, we present a multimaterial cryogenic printing (MCP) technique that can fabricate sophisticated soft hydrogel machines with accurate yet complex architectures and robust multimaterial interfaces.
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