Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 8, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14230
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Funding
- ONR [N00014-14-1-0528]
- MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
- NSF [CMMI-1253495]
- Draper Laboratory
- Samsung Scholarship
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative from the Office of Naval Research [N00014-13-1-0631]
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Civil, Mechanical, & Manufact Inn [1532136] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Sea animals such as leptocephali develop tissues and organs composed of active transparent hydrogels to achieve agile motions and natural camouflage in water. Hydrogel-based actuators that can imitate the capabilities of leptocephali will enable new applications in diverse fields. However, existing hydrogel actuators, mostly osmotic-driven, are intrinsically low-speed and/or low-force; and their camouflage capabilities have not been explored. Here we show that hydraulic actuations of hydrogels with designed structures and properties can give soft actuators and robots that are high-speed, high-force, and optically and sonically camouflaged in water. The hydrogel actuators and robots can maintain their robustness and functionality over multiple cycles of actuations, owing to the anti-fatigue property of the hydrogel under moderate stresses. We further demonstrate that the agile and transparent hydrogel actuators and robots perform extraordinary functions including swimming, kicking rubber-balls and even catching a live fish in water.
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