A bio-inspired approach towards the development of soft amoeboid microrobots

Abstract

Innovative soft robots can be developed at the microscale by taking inspiration from the biophysical descriptions of amoeboids. In this study, we fabricated active hydrogels as possible structural and functional materials in order to achieve locomotion at the microscale. The prepared hydrogels cointain a moiety that exhibits color changes through the reversible redox of ruthenium complexes, driven by the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. Such chemical oscillation in the hydrogel interact with the polymer matrix to cause mechanical ones, that can be exploited as means of actuation and possibly to obtain locomotion. Furthermore, in this study the self-oscillating hydrogels are compared with biological materials to validate their choice in the development of a self-propelled stimuli-responsive microrobot inspired by amoeboids.