New Metallic Material

A Step Closer to Perfecting Flexible Robots with New Metallic Material

Asst Prof Chen Po-Yen (right) and doctoral student Yang Haitao (left) and their team created a new metallic material for soft and flexible robots.

Check out how the technology works here. https://youtu.be/ TAprG0J-rmk A ssistant Professor Chen Po-Yen from NUS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and his team have created a suitable metal-based material for use in origami robots – soft and flexible robots used in applications such as drug delivery in human bodies, search and rescue missions in disaster environments and humanoid robotic arms.

The new material developed by Asst Prof Chen and team is not only half the weight of paper, but also foldable like traditional paper and plastic. These characteristics improve the speed performance of origami robots as well as make them more energy efficient. Additionally, the material has the propensity to withstand burning at about 800 degree Celsius for up to five minutes while its ondemand geothermal heating capabilities prevent icing damage in a cold environment.

Besides being mechanically stable and soft, the material also has a conductive backbone. Being conductive enables the material to act as its own wireless antenna to communicate with a remote operator or other robots without the need for external communication modules.

These various properties make the material optimal for use in the creation of light, flexible search-andrescue robots that can enter hazardous areas – including chemical spills and fire disasters – as remote-control untethered robots that provide real-time feedback and communication. The material also makes for a strong candidate for making flexible and light prosthetic limbs which can be as much as 60 percent lighter than their conventional counterparts. Such prosthetics can provide real-time strain sensing to give feedback on how much they are flexing, giving users finer control and immediate information – without the need for external sensors which would otherwise add unwanted weight to the prosthetic.

The research findings were published in “Science Robotics” journal.

In the next steps of their research, Asst Prof Chen and his team are looking at adding more functions to the metallic backbone. One of which is to incorporate electrochemically active materials to fabricate energy storage devices such that the material itself is its own battery, allowing for the creation of self-powered robots. Concurrently, the team is experimenting with other metals such as copper to lower the cost of the material’s production.