Flexible Locomotion Robot Consisting of Sensors and Actuators Printed with Silver Nano-ink

Abstract

Printed electronics (PE) and the sensors and actuators fabricated with PE are essential to increase the freedom of design of soft robots. This study utilizes the previously-proposed method to fabricate actuators and sensors in one piece based on PE technology. This research shows that the fabrication method allows us to design various forms of robots. In particular, we demonstrate that the actuator’s shape (beam) can change its behavior, and we design a circuit to measure the amount of current in the actuator to estimate the bending deformation. We have also developed several prototypes and the simulator to design a locomotion robot’s motion composed of multiple actuators and sensors.