Tough, self-healable and somatosensitive soft robot

Abstract

The physically compliant and gentle interactivity of soft robots has opened new possibilities of robot tasks like dexterous manipulation, soft material grasping, and human-interactive applications. However, the softness causes mechanical vulnerability to damage like puncture, tendon cuts, degradation, and delamination. To overcome the vulnerability, self-healing and tough elastomers are needed. However, it was very difficult to design tough, and self-healing materials for soft robots due to the trade-off relationship between self-healing efficiency and mechanical toughness. Here, we report a new molecular design of a self-healing elastomer with high mechanical toughness, and its application for a tough self-healing somatosensitive soft robot system. These somatosensory systems not only allow us to know the unknown environment but also recognize unexpected external damage and respond in a few seconds. The first demonstration of the tough self-healing somatosensitive soft robot can allow the autonomous soft robot system to be used in much more dynamic environments for a long time.