This project will advance a new class of motors for soft robots, based on the electrically driven pumping of liquid. These motor units, called HASELs (hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic actuators), have the potential to enable practical and useful soft robots for safe interactions with humans. Robot components such as hands and legs will be designed and manufactured using 3D printing. Effective 3D printing designs, and control software developed in the project will be made available for public download and use. An important outcome of this project will be engineering design principles and useful tools that will allow citizen scientists to proliferate useful robots in the future.
This project provides a framework for the widespread adoption of HASELs by addressing their manufacturing, power, and control in easily replicated motifs that will be made available to the public in free online databases. Additionally, frontier research will be explored to further improve the state of the art in terms of efficiency, power density, distributed computation, sensing, and actuation. In order to achieve these goals, the project will leverage this rare opportunity for a coordinated, multidisciplinary effort between experts in physics, material science, microelectronic engineering, as well as low- and high-level controls. HASELs represent the first electrostatic soft actuators that are stable and useful enough for broad adoption by experts and non-experts alike. HASELs are stretchable capacitors with a liquid dielectric. When voltage is applied, the electrodes pull together and pump the dielectric liquid, combining the benefits of fluidically pressurized actuators with the convenience of direct electrical power. The self-healing ability of the dielectric liquid allows for repeated use in circumstances impermissible in other electrostatic actuators. This project will be a four-year effort that uses increasingly complex device demonstrations as milestones. These milestones will demonstrate annual improvements in three key areas: (i) Reproducible and Reliable Fabrication of Electrohydraulic Robots; (ii) Distributed Microscale Power & Computation; (iii) Design & Control of HASEL Robots.
This project is jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA) and the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
