Thermomechanical liquid crystalline elastomer capillaries with biomimetic peristaltic crawling function

Abstract

. The mechanism of the peristaltic crawling of the LCE capillary is elucidated with the assistance of the finite elemental analysis (FEA) simulation. A five-stage motion model is established to rationalize these observations and correlate the observations with the crawling locomotion of earthworms. The LCE capillary with the peristaltic crawling locomotion function promises its potential applications in biomimetic miniature robots and actuators.