Bio-Inspired Liquid Crystal Elastomer Suction Actuator for Intelligent Robotic Grasping
Shen Gao, Yongzheng Luo, Mingjun Tang, Yue Wang, Tao Yue
AI summary
Problem
Conventional suction grippers depend on bulky vacuum pumps and complex tubing, making them too heavy and slow for lightweight, mobile, or soft robotic platforms in unstructured environments.
Approach
The researchers engineered a bioinspired suction actuator using liquid crystal elastomer that generates negative pressure through reversible, thermally induced cavity shrinkage, eliminating the need for external pneumatic systems.
Key results
- Fabricated patterned anisotropic LCE via UV-cured stamp molding
- Achieved reversible cavity volume reduction from 507 μm to 164 μm depth upon heating
- Demonstrated stable adhesion strength of ~40.7 kPa at 30°C and rapid release at 80°C
- Validated reliable attachment/detachment over 300 cycles on glass
Why it matters
Provides a lightweight, pump-free adhesion solution for climbing robots, aerial drones, and underwater exploration platforms.
Abstract
Grasping operations constitute a fundamental mechanism for robotic interaction with the environment and task execution, playing a critical role in logistics, unmanned systems, and complex terrain exploration. Conventional rigid grasping devices are often bulky and exhibit limited adaptabil- ity and controllability in unstructured environments. Suc- tion-based grippers offer improved environmental compliance but typically require extensive tubing and vacuum pumps, con- straining their integration into lightweight and soft robotic platforms. Inspired by octopus suction cups, recent bioinspired designs have leveraged geometrical optimization and flexible materials to enhance adhesion, yet most still rely on external actuation or complex vacuum systems, failing to replicate the rapid, reversible adhesion achieved through muscular contrac- tion. To address this challenge, we present a bioinspired suction actuator based on liquid crystal elastomer (LCE), exploiting their reversible anisotropic–isotropic phase transition under thermal stimuli to dynamically modulate the cavity volume and generate controllable negative pressure. The proposed design closely emulates octopus muscle mechanics while significantly simplifying structural complexity, achieving a combination of light weight, compliance, and programmability. Experiments demonstrate stable adhesion of 30 kPa on glass over 300 cycles, with rapid and reliable attachment/detachment under varying conditions, highlighting potential applications in climbing ro- bots, aerial grasping, and underwater exploration.