Research On The Design,Fabrication And Driving Performance Of Magnetically Controlled Soft Actuator And Robot

Robots are one of the important manifestations of human civilization on the path of intelligence.With the development of the industry,robots have entered more and more fields such as medical,military,and human daily life.Traditional robots,often made of hard materials,have high stiffness and limited structure,making them powerless when requiring high-precision and complex operations and working in narrow spaces.Soft robots mainly composed of flexible or elastic materials happen to fill this gap.They have infinite degrees of freedom and continuous deformation ability similar to organisms,and can arbitrarily change their own shape and size over a large range,demonstrating strong environmental adaptability and interaction safety.However,the use of flexible materials around the body makes it difficult for soft robots to adapt to traditional energy supply and driving methods such as cable circuits and built-in batteries.Therefore,cableless technology is an inevitable choice to solve their energy supply and motion control.The non-contact,cableless driving and control method based on magnetic field provides an easy to implement,controllable,and basically harmless wireless remote solution.This type of magnetic driven soft robot is conducive to simplifying the structural design of the robot,with characteristics such as light weight,strong flexibility,stable motion,high safety,and flexible operation.It is very suitable for completing complex tasks in narrow spaces and unstructured dynamic environments.It has shown great application potential in fields such as intelligent sensing,minimally invasive surgery,disaster rescue,wearable devices,and is attracting more and more research attention,Becoming a research hotspot in the field of robotics.This article conducts in-depth research on the design,manufacturing,and driving of magnetic driven soft materials and magnetic soft robots.The main content includes the following aspects:1)Based on the driving principle,motion mechanism,and control requirements of a magnetic driven soft robot,a magnetic field generation device was designed,consisting of a combination model of three pairs of mutually orthogonal Helmholtz coils.Based on the principle of generating a magnetic field with a single axis Helmholtz coil,design the structural parameters of the coil system.According to the motion requirements of the robot,complete the spatial layout design of the combined coil and establish a three-dimensional mathematical model of the electromagnetic field.Obtain the magnetic field distribution characteristics of the Helmholtz coil through finite element simulation,simulate the three-dimensional uniform magnetic field and spatial rotating magnetic field generated by it,and compare the theoretical and simulation values of the magnetic field to complete the feasibility verification of the coil system.2)A magnetic soft film was designed and prepared using silicone material as the main material and adding hard ferromagnetic particles.The thin film has a visualized magnetization curve,which is formed by fixing the film to a specific shape when magnetized under a strong magnetic field,causing the magnetic domains of the internal magnetic particles to reorient in the direction of the applied magnetic field.This thin film sheet can be driven by a magnetic field to achieve rapid and reversible transformation of complex three-dimensional shapes,as well as some robot movements.In addition,we have derived various functions from this magnetic drive’s deformation response ability,combined with other material characteristics and structural design,to explore its potential applications in fields such as color change camouflage and droplet transportation.3)A soft robot with continuously changing magnetization contours was prepared through this magnetization method.Using the periodic magnetic field generated by the designed electromagnetic coil to drive the robot,it exhibits a crawling gait similar to that of insects.We analyzed the interaction law between the magnetic moment of the robot and the external magnetic field,constructed a simplified mechanical model of its motion,and used COMSOL multi-physical field coupling simulation software to simulate and theoretically verify the robot’s motion.Conduct experiments on the motion characteristics of robots in different driving fields,and analyze the effects of factors such as magnetic field,material properties,preparation conditions,and size on their motion rate.Based on this,various motion modes of the robot were regulated and ultimately used for task execution in various complex environments.