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Boxi Xia
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University in the City of New York, 500 W 120th St., Mudd 220, New York, NY 10027, USA

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Journal article
Published: 28 July 2020 in Actuators
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The actuation of silicone/ethanol soft composite material-actuators is based on the phase change of ethanol upon heating, followed by the expansion of the whole composite, exhibiting high actuation stress and strain. However, the low thermal conductivity of silicone rubber hinders uniform heating throughout the material, creating overheated damaged areas in the silicone matrix and accelerating ethanol evaporation. This limits the actuation speed and the total number of operation cycles of these thermally-driven soft actuators. In this paper, we showed that adding 8 wt.% of diamond nanoparticle-based thermally conductive filler increases the thermal conductivity (from 0.190 W/mK to 0.212 W/mK), actuation speed and amount of operation cycles of silicone/ethanol actuators, while not affecting the mechanical properties. We performed multi-cyclic actuation tests and showed that the faster and longer operation of 8 wt.% filler material-actuators allows collecting enough reliable data for computational methods to model further actuation behavior. We successfully implemented a long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network model to predict the actuation force exerted in a uniform multi-cyclic actuation experiment. This work paves the way for a broader implementation of soft thermally-driven actuators in various robotic applications.

ACS Style

Boxi Xia; Aslan Miriyev; Cesar Trujillo; Neil Chen; Mark Cartolano; Shivaniprashant Vartak; Hod Lipson. Improving the Actuation Speed and Multi-Cyclic Actuation Characteristics of Silicone/Ethanol Soft Actuators. Actuators 2020, 9, 62 .

AMA Style

Boxi Xia, Aslan Miriyev, Cesar Trujillo, Neil Chen, Mark Cartolano, Shivaniprashant Vartak, Hod Lipson. Improving the Actuation Speed and Multi-Cyclic Actuation Characteristics of Silicone/Ethanol Soft Actuators. Actuators. 2020; 9 (3):62.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Boxi Xia; Aslan Miriyev; Cesar Trujillo; Neil Chen; Mark Cartolano; Shivaniprashant Vartak; Hod Lipson. 2020. "Improving the Actuation Speed and Multi-Cyclic Actuation Characteristics of Silicone/Ethanol Soft Actuators." Actuators 9, no. 3: 62.

Journal article
Published: 01 December 2019 in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing
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Elastomer composites have proven to be promising functional materials for soft actuators. Direct manufacturing of these materials is a practical prerequisite for Soft Robotics applications, where form and function are intricately entangled. In this article we show a multimaterial printer and associated processes for in situ fabrication of silicones and silicone-based elastomer composites for soft actuators. We discuss the fabrication process for both the silicone/ethanol composite material and encapsulating silicone skin using an inline passive mixing system, followed by characterization of the rheological and mechanical properties of the printed materials for various print modalities. Rheological study revealed the conditions, allowing continuous 3D printing of both small and big items out of silicone rubber and silicone/ethanol composite. Anisotropic mechanical properties allow for the design of functional characteristics of soft actuators by choosing print design modalities. We demonstrate a single-print-job additive manufacturing of functional multimaterial systems for soft actuation, and suggest that the developed processes will allow us to design soft robots with a broad range of actuation characteristics.

ACS Style

Aslan Miriyev; Boxi Xia; Jacob Carroll Joseph; Hod Lipson. Additive Manufacturing of Silicone Composites for Soft Actuation. 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing 2019, 6, 309 -318.

AMA Style

Aslan Miriyev, Boxi Xia, Jacob Carroll Joseph, Hod Lipson. Additive Manufacturing of Silicone Composites for Soft Actuation. 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. 2019; 6 (6):309-318.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Aslan Miriyev; Boxi Xia; Jacob Carroll Joseph; Hod Lipson. 2019. "Additive Manufacturing of Silicone Composites for Soft Actuation." 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing 6, no. 6: 309-318.

Journal article
Published: 21 January 2019 in Actuators
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We examine electrically conductive fabrics as conductive heaters for heat-activated soft actuators. We have explored various fabric designs optimized for material properties, heat distribution and actuation/de-actuation characteristics of the soft actuators. We implemented this approach in the silicone/ethanol composite actuators, in which ethanol undergoes a thermally-induced phase change, leading to high actuation stress and strain. Various types of conductive fabrics were tested, and we developed a stretchable kirigami-based fabric design. We demonstrate a fabric heater that is capable of cyclic heating of the actuator to the required 80 °C. The fabric with the special kirigami design can withstand temperatures of up to 195 °C, can consume up to 30 W of power, and allows the actuator to reach >30% linear strain. This technology may be used in various systems involving thermally-induced actuation.

ACS Style

Mark Cartolano; Boxi Xia; Aslan Miriyev; Hod Lipson. Conductive Fabric Heaters for Heat-Activated Soft Actuators. Actuators 2019, 8, 9 .

AMA Style

Mark Cartolano, Boxi Xia, Aslan Miriyev, Hod Lipson. Conductive Fabric Heaters for Heat-Activated Soft Actuators. Actuators. 2019; 8 (1):9.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mark Cartolano; Boxi Xia; Aslan Miriyev; Hod Lipson. 2019. "Conductive Fabric Heaters for Heat-Activated Soft Actuators." Actuators 8, no. 1: 9.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2019 in Gait & Posture
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The paper provided first evidence for visuomotor adaptations during unperturbed overground walking and during visual perturbations while wearing a VR headset. It represents an initial investigation that may help the development of new VR methods for early detection and remediation of gait deficits in more ecological conditions.

ACS Style

Dario Martelli; Boxi Xia; Antonio Prado; Sunil K. Agrawal. Gait adaptations during overground walking and multidirectional oscillations of the visual field in a virtual reality headset. Gait & Posture 2019, 67, 251 -256.

AMA Style

Dario Martelli, Boxi Xia, Antonio Prado, Sunil K. Agrawal. Gait adaptations during overground walking and multidirectional oscillations of the visual field in a virtual reality headset. Gait & Posture. 2019; 67 ():251-256.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dario Martelli; Boxi Xia; Antonio Prado; Sunil K. Agrawal. 2019. "Gait adaptations during overground walking and multidirectional oscillations of the visual field in a virtual reality headset." Gait & Posture 67, no. : 251-256.