- Invisible radar a boost for defence
- Lighting event part of Sydney’s Vivid
- RF switches for an array of applications
- Is a legal dispute with Apple costing chip maker Qualcomm?
CORNELL University researchers have developed a material which emits light and stretches to more than six times its original size, with possible applications as the “skin” of soft robots.
The electroluminescent “skin” has been termed hyper-elastic light-emitting capacitor (HELC). It could stretch with the body of a soft robot, while allowing them to change their colour, and display various information on their surfaces.
This could lead to health care robots capable of displaying patient details, or autonomous cars that change the shape of its information display interface depending on the needs of the passenger.
The current version of HELC can endure more than twice the strain of previously tested stretchable displays. It consists of layers of transparent hydrogel electrodes sandwiching a dielectric (insulating) elastomer sheet.
The elastomer changes luminance and capacitance (the ability to store an electrical charge) when stretched, rolled and otherwise deformed.
In addition to its ability to emit light under a strain of greater than 480 percent its original size, the group’s HLEC was shown to be capable of being integrated into a soft robotic system.
Three six-layer HLEC panels were bound together to form a crawling soft robot, with the top four layers making up the light-up skin and the bottom two the pneumatic actuators.
The chambers were alternately inflated and deflated, with the resulting curvature creating an undulating, “walking” motion.
Additional applications include wearables, with the material used to make devices that fully conform to the wearer’s shape, while displaying information.