A Jelly-Like Artificial Muscle for Untethered Underwater Robot

Abstract

Underwater robots desire versatile, water-adaptive, untethered, and rapidly actuating soft artificial muscles. Existing artificial muscles compromise between high water compatibility and untethered rapid actuation. Taking inspiration from the watery and fast contraction characteristics of jellyfish, we present a Jelly-like muscle design that features an extremely soft (elastic modulus: 0.67 kPa) and watery (water content: 83.3%) structure. The Jelly-like muscle can instantly respond to electrical stimuli and provide underwater propulsion. The muscle can shift propulsion direction by simply tuning the voltage signal and quickly recover from electromechanical failures through repair. An untethered robot can be assembled by stimulating the muscle with an onboard power system. The robot reaches the maximum speed of 0.91 cm/s (0.3 body length per second) and has the endurance of 15.7 mins with a 500 mAh lithium-ion battery. Robots can be constructed in different forms by tailoring the Jelly-like muscle, which is promising in various applications.

Keywords: Soft artificial muscle, Hydrogel, Dielectric elastomer, Untethered underwater robot, Extremely soft and watery structure, Fast electrical actuation