TU Delft develops soft actuators for 'soft robotics'

Newly developed actuators offer opportunities to develop 'soft' robots that can safely handle delicate objects. The well-programmable actuators were built by researchers from TU Delft.

Professor Amir Zadpoor, who supervised the research, says in the journal Materials Horizon: “Robots tend to be big and heavy. But you also want robots that can be gentle, for example when they are handling soft tissues in the human body. The field that studies this topic, soft robotics, is now rapidly gaining popularity.”

According to TU Delft the newly developed actuators are possible thanks to flexible metamaterials. These work on the basis of mechanical instability. In addition, these metamaterials can be programmed in the material itself. The developed soft actuators are used in a conventional robot arm for 'pick-and-place' tasks.

“The function is inherent in the material itself,” Zadpoor explains. “We therefore had to study the phenomenon of deformation more closely. Once considered the epitome of bad design, it has been harnessed in the past few years and is being used to design mechanical metamaterials with advanced functions. Soft robotics in general and soft actuators in particular can benefit greatly from such design materials. Whether the enormous potential of deformation can be fully exploited depends on overcoming the major limitation of the designs presented so far: their limited programmability. We were able to calculate and predict higher deformation rates and make the material more susceptible to them.”