Magneto-soft robots based on multi-materials optimizing and heat-assisted in-situ magnetic domains programming

作者：Fuzhou Niu, Quhao Xue, Qing Cao, He Xinyang, Taolei Wang, Haochen Wang, Chonglei Hao, Xiaojian Li, Ying Li, Hao Yang, Huayong Yang, Dong Han · 发表于：International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1088/2631-7990/add81b · 被引用次数：33 · 研究领域：Soft Robotics and Applications、Advanced Materials and Mechanics、Manufacturing Process and Optimization

Abstract Soft robots, inspired by the flexibility and versatility of biological organisms, have potential in a variety of applications. Recent advancements in magneto-soft robots have demonstrated their abilities to achieve precise remote control through magnetic fields, enabling multi-modal locomotion and complex manipulation tasks. Nonetheless, two main hurdles must be overcome to advance the field: developing a multi-component substrate with embedded magnetic particles to ensure the requisite flexibility and responsiveness, and devising a cost-effective, straightforward method to program three-dimensional distributed magnetic domains without complex processing and expensive machinery. Here, we introduce a cost-effective and simple heat-assisted in-situ integrated molding fabrication method for creating magnetically driven soft robots with three-dimensional programmable magnetic domains. By synthesizing a composite material with neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) particles embedded in a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Ecoflex matrix (PDMS:Ecoflex = 1:2 mass ratio, 50% magnetic particle concentration), we achieved an optimized balance of flexibility, strength, and magnetic responsiveness. The proposed heat-assisted in-situ magnetic domains programming technique, performed at an experimentally optimized temperature of 120 °C, resulted in a 2 times magnetization strength (9.5 mT) compared to that at 20 °C (4.8 mT), reaching a saturation level comparable to a commercial magnetizer. W...