Robotic Fluids for artificial muscles, wearable cooling, and active textiles

Introduction

Fluid circulation is ubiquitous in both living creatures and machines, and it serves multiple functions: temperature regulation, transport of nutrients, and mechanical actuation. A beating heart is a soft pump that keeps animals alive through blood circulation.

Project Overview

ROBOFLUID will merge fluid capabilities with electrical control to equip robots and wearables with the superpowers of fluids. By untangling the interaction between intense electric fields and fluid mechanics, ROBOFLUID will develop a new class of solid-state fluidic devices where flow is directly driven in situ by electrical signals. Additionally, fluid velocity, pressure, and temperature will be used to sense the device status and the environment.

Challenges in Conventional Fluidics

The large number of components required to operate conventional fluidics (pumps, valves, tubing, plugs) has prevented its use in untethered systems. ROBOFLUID will overcome this limitation by means of solid-state pumps where fluids are directly accelerated by electric fields.

Applications

Similarly to robotic hearts, robotic fluids will drive:

1. New strong and robust artificial muscles.
2. Wearable coolers.
3. Active textiles for movement support and haptics.

Expertise and Goals

ROBOFLUID will leverage our experience with soft robotics, electroactive materials, and solid-state pumping based on Electrohydrodynamics (EHD). By bringing these fields together and bridging them with emerging active fiber technologies for wearables, we aim to:

• Create new scientific understanding of fluid mechanics and field emission in liquids under high electric fields.
• Develop new groundbreaking functionalities for robots and wearables.

Expected Outcomes

We will create:

1. Robust, high-power-density fluidic muscles that will make low-cost dexterous robotic hands possible.
2. Wearable coolers to reduce energy consumption from air conditioning and to protect fragile people during extreme heat waves.
3. Textile artificial muscles to facilitate daily actions in the elderly and to enable remote physical interactions.