Magnetic soft millirobot with simultaneous locomotion and sensing capability

Abstract Soft millirobot has attracted significant attention and demonstrated tremendous potential in human-robot interactions and safety inspections. Locomotion and perception are two crucial features for achieving effective gait and practical applications of robots. Inspired by nature, this resear...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Weihong Zeng, Xinrui Ding, Yuan Jin, Bin Liu, Runhao Zeng, Feng Gong, Yan Lou, Lelun Jiang, Hui Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-06-01
Series:npj Flexible Electronics
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41528-025-00437-0
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Summary:Abstract Soft millirobot has attracted significant attention and demonstrated tremendous potential in human-robot interactions and safety inspections. Locomotion and perception are two crucial features for achieving effective gait and practical applications of robots. Inspired by nature, this research reports a magnetic soft millirobot that integrates locomotion and sensing capacities simultaneously. Microconical matrix with rich and regular surface morphologies are constructed directly inside the millirobot as both multilegged and triboelectric-enhanced sensing structures via cooperation of jet printing and magnetization-induction method with high-speed and high-precision. The robot can both recognize its current body state across various application scenarios and identify terrains through a machine learning strategy. Our work presents a customizable approach for smart millirobots to perform tasks in nonmagnetic structured environments and provides embedded sensing capability for next-generation soft robots.
ISSN:2397-4621