Development of a gel robot made of electro-active polymer PAMPS gel

Abstract

Introduces and describes a novel design method and implementation of robots which have fully elastic bodies. We focus on developing a mechanism made of soft materials, Poly (2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid) gel (PAMPS gel). It is specifically a swinging mechanism whose energy is supplied by applying an electric field in a surfactant solution. Material properties are carefully examined to determine the design of the robot body. Due to their small Young's modulus, thin parts work as actuators whereas thick parts work as structures, and surprisingly it is possible to change the role of each part by adjusting the magnitude and frequency of the input signal. We have verified the validity of our method and implementation by developing two prototypes of gel robot, "sea anemone robot" and "sea butterfly robot".