Crawling Soft Actuator Based on Laser Induced Graphene

This work reports a laser induced graphene (LIG) electrode with large deformational ability and graphical ability which can be applied as artificial muscle in a crawling soft robot. Several remarkable feats are achieved: (1) the LIG-based actuator shows 6% strain under the driving voltage of 4kV; (2) biomimetic soft crawling movement with the maximum speed up to 33mm/s on A4 paper at its resonant frequency of 200Hz; and (3) graphical ability of the LIG-based electrode allows the actuator manufactured in short time with very low cost. Therefore, this new type of LIG electrode may provide new opportunities for dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) in soft robots.