Materials that change shape are attractive candidates to replace traditional actuators for applications with power or size restrictions. In this work, we design a polymeric bilayer that changes shape in response to both heat and water by the incorporation of a water-responsive hydrophilic polymer with a heat-responsive liquid crystal elastomer. The distinct shape changes based on stimulus are c...

High-density tactile sensing has been pursued for humanoid robotic hands to obtain contact force information while the elastomer skin cover is traditionally considered to impair the force discrimination. In this work, we try to utilize the diffusion effect of the elastomer cover to identify an arbitrary contact force load just based on a sparse tactile sensor array. By numerical analysis, we pr...

Retardation of necking under biaxial stretching of bilayer plates comprised of an elastomer layer bonded to a metal layer is studied. Substantial increases in necking limits and consequent energy absorption can be achieved in metal–elastomer bilayers for both quasi-static and dynamic stretching. The phenomena is tied to the fact that under stretching the incremental modulus of the elastomer rem...

The main objective of the current research work is to explore effect nanosilica particles on compound EPDM/SBR-SiO2 (ethylene-propylene-diene monomer/styrene-butadiene rubber-nanosilica). composite EPDM/SBR with and without silane coupling agent was processed using an open mill mixer. are prepared in laboratory were used as reinforcing material rubber composites. cure characteristics, mechanica...

We use a phase-changing metal alloy to reversibly tune the elastic rigidity of an elastomer composite. The elastomer is embedded with a sheet of low-melting-point Field’s metal and an electric Joule heater composed of a serpentine channel of liquid-phase gallium–indium–tin (Galinstan R ) alloy. At room temperature, the embedded Field’s metal is solid and the composite remains elastically rigid....

Control of soft-bodied systems is challenging, as the absence of rigidity typically implies distributed deformations and infinite degrees-of-freedom. In this paper, we demonstrate closedloop control of three elastomer beams that vary in bending stiffness. The most stiff beam is comprised of a single prismatic structure made from a single elastomer. In the next beam, increased flexibility is int...

When encapsulated in elastomer, micropatterned traces of Ga-based liquid metal (LM) can function as elastically deformable circuit wiring that provides mechanically robust electrical connectivity between solid-state elements (e.g., transistors, processors, and sensor nodes). However, LM-microelectronics integration is currently limited by challenges in rapid fabrication of LM circuits and the c...

Liquid-phase electronic circuits are patterned on an elastomer substrate with a microcontact printer. The printer head dips into a pool of a liquid-phase gallium-indium alloy, e.g., eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) or gallium-indium-tin (Galinstan), and deposits a single drop on a silicone elastomer substrate. After patterned deposition, the liquid-phase circuit is sealed with an additional laye...

Dielectric Elastomer Actuators In article number 2213589, Kilwon Cho and co-workers report a flexible skin-mountable vibrotactile-stimulator based on thin lateral dielectric elastomer actuators. The actuator shows significant actuation at low operating voltage because of laterally aligned multilayer structure with short distance soft elastomer/ionic liquid composite. covers broad perception fre...