Versatile Liquid Metal Soft Actuators by Leveraging the Phase Transition and Surface Tension Modulation

The significant strides of soft actuators have been made with applications in soft robotics and biomedical devices spanning industry and academia, due to their good adaptability and high efficiency. Various stimuli-responsive smart materials, such as shape memory alloys and liquid crystals, are developed for achieving actuation by converting electrical, thermal, optical energy into mechanical energy. It is worth noting that liquid metal (LM) has attracted increasing attention in the field of actuators. Thanks to the unique properties including high deformability and conductivity, LM enabled soft actuators to have been explored and exhibit promising applications in artificial muscle, cargo delivery, and automatic manipulation. This major purpose of the research is to develop LM soft actuators by exploring LM’s superior attributes including fast phase transition and surface tension modulation, and to design an intelligent relay and micro flow pump for boosting promising fields of smart mechatronics and electronics.