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soft active materials

Yoonho Kim's picture

Untethered soft machines and robots enabled by hard-magnetic soft materials

We introduce our recent works on advanced fabrication and mechanics of hard-magnetic soft materials towards the development of untethered soft machines and robots actuated and controlled by magnetic fields. 

- Abstract

Stefan E. Schausberger's picture

RSS- -Cost-Efficient Open Source Desktop Size Radial Stretching System With Force Sensor

The rapid and efficient development of soft active materials requires readily available, compact testing equipment. We propose a desktop-sized, cost-efficient, and open source radial stretching system as an alternative to commercially available biaxial and uniaxial stretching devices. It allows for doubling the diameter of an elastomer membrane while measuring the applied force. Our development enables significant cost reduction (<300 €) and increase the availability of equibiaxial deformation measurements for scientific material analysis.

Adrian S. J. Koh's picture

One Research Fellow (Post-Doctoral) Position open in Singapore

We are looking for a highly-motivated research
fellow to work in the area of applied mechanics and materials.

The project is on energy harvesting using soft active materials. This is a joint effort between the Institute of High Performance Computing (A*STAR), and the National
University of Singapore.  The applicant
must hold a PhD degree, prior post-doctoral experience is not required. Relevant
experience in (1) experiments and/or (2) finite element modeling and simulation
is preferred.

Nanshu Lu's picture

Call for papers: Soft Robotics - a new journal dedicated to soft machines

Dear colleagues and friends, 

 

On behalf of the editorial board, I would like to introduce our new Journal, Soft Robotics (SoRo) to the mechanics community. SoRo is an innovative peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the science and engineering of soft materials in mobile machines. The Journal breaks new ground as the first to answer the urgent need for research on robotic technology that can safely interact with living systems and function in complex natural or human-built environments.

Bo Li's picture

Dynamic model of ion and water transport in ionic polymer-metal composites

In the process of electro-mechanical transduction of
ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs), the transport of ion and water molecule
plays an important role. In this paper, the theoretical transport models of
IPMCs are critically reviewed, with particular emphasis on the recent
developments in the latest decade. The models can be divided into three classes,
thermodynamics of irreversible process model, frictional model and Nernst-Planck
(NP) equation model. To some extent the three models can be transformed into
each other, but their differences are also obvious arising from the various
mechanisms that considered in different models. The transport of ion and water
molecule in IPMCs is compared with that in membrane electrode assembly and

Strain stiffening induced by molecular motors in active crosslinked biopolymer networks

We have studied the elastic response of actin networks with both compliant and rigid crosslinks by modeling molecular motors as force dipoles. Our finite element simulations show that for compliant crosslinkers such as filamin A, the network can be stiffened by two orders of magnitude while stiffening achieved with incompliant linkers such as scruin is significantly smaller, typically a factor of two, in excellent agreement with recent experiments.

Zhigang Suo's picture

Lectures on Soft Active Materials, 3rd edition

At the invitation of Yonggang Huang, I’ll give 4-hour lectures at the NSF Summer Institute Course on the Mechanics of Soft Materials.   I attach the slides of the lectures, to be given on Monday, 10 May 2010.  An abstract of the lectures follows.

Zhigang Suo's picture

Dielectric elastomers of interpenetrating networks

Recent experiments have shown that a voltage can induce a large deformation in an elastomer of interpenetrating networks. We describe a model of interpenetrating networks of long and short chains. As the voltage ramps up, the elastomer may undergo a snap-through instability. The network with long chains fills the space and keeps elastomer compliant at small to modest deformation. The network with short chains acts as a safety net that restrains the elastomer from thinning down excessively, averting electrical breakdown.  It appears possible to find a dielectric elastomer capable of giant deformation of actuation.  You can read the paper, or take a look at the slides posted here.

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