液晶流を利用した無定形アクチュエータ

抄録

To develop the amorphous liquid crystalline actuators which can drive objects as well as can change own shape, the behavior of a liquid crystal droplet under electric fields has been investigated. In this work, two kinds of electric fields are employed, and they are (1) a lateral electric field and (2) vertical electric field. For the case of the lateral electric field, the liquid crystal droplet moves until its gravity center reach the center of the paired electrodes. On the other hand, for the vertical electric field, the droplet continue moving until the field is turned off. Also, the flow in the droplet is visualized by tracking the micro-particles mixed in the liquid crystal.