A biomimetic structure and manufacturing process of electrically actuated inchworm based on liquid crystal elastic polymer

Abstract

The invention relates to a bionic inchworm structure based on a liquid crystal elastic polymer and a manufacturing process thereof. A silica gel film with a certain thickness is arranged at a top layer, and an inclined columnar array structure and a liquid crystal elastic polymer which are bonded into a whole through an adhesive material and the top layer silica gel film are arranged on a lower layer. The manufacturing process comprises the following steps that the inclined columnar array structure is prepared, the top layer silica gel film is prepared, and the inclined columnar array structure, the liquid crystal elastic polymer and the silica gel film are bonded together to form a composite structure, finally, the electro-actuation characteristic of the liquid crystal elastic polymer isactivated to produce a functional structure in which the liquid crystal elastic polymer in a raised state is compounded with the top silica gel film and the inclined columnar array structure. The drybionic inchworm structure based on the liquid crystal elastic polymer can realize organic unification of controllable driving and large deformation under the premise of small voltage driving.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of bionic manufacturing in micro-nano engineering, and in particular relates to a bionic structure and manufacturing process of an electrically actuated inchworm based on a liquid crystal elastic polymer. Background technique [0002] Inchworms can easily climb and walk freely on the branches and leaves by relying on the thoracic feet and tail feet of the body. It has good motion stability, strong adaptability to materials and shapes, and will not cause damage to the surface of objects. It has attracted the attention of many researchers who are committed to the research of soft robots. At present, the actuation applied to the bionic structure of the inchworm is mainly photo-actuation and electro-actuation. Among them, the light-induced drive is mainly based on pure polymer materials (such as: monodomain nematic liquid crystal elastomer with polysiloxane as the main chain containing azophenyl groups) and pol...

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Problems solved by technology

Among them, the light-induced drive is mainly based on pure polymer materials (such as: monodomain nematic liquid crystal elastomer with polysiloxane as the main chain containing azophenyl groups) and polymer-based composite materials. Under the action of the chemical bond, the change of chemical bond or the transformation of energy is realized, thereby causing the material deformation, but a set of external laser source equipment is required, and because the spot area of ​​the laser source is small, the deformation of the bionic structure driven by the external laser source is small. and less controllable

In electro-actuation, there are mainly two driving materials, ionic electroactive polymers and non-ionic electroactive polymers. Ionic electroactive polymers need to be packaged during driving, and their flexibility is reduced, which is not conducive to deformation; and Non-ionic electroactive polymers are very easy to reach the electrical breakdown value of the material due to the need for a high activation field, so their deformation is limited, so the application of the two polymers based on electrical actuation is limited to varying degrees

So how to safely and effectively realize the organic unity of controllable drive and large deformation of the bionic inchworm structure is the current difficulty and challenge in the direction of bionic inchworm design and process manufacturing.

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