Room Temperature Self-Healing in Soft Pneumatic Robotics: Autonomous Self-Healing in a Diels-Alder Polymer Network

Healable soft robotic systems have been developed by constructing flexible membranes out of Diels-Alder (DA) polymer networks. In these components, relatively large amounts of damage, on the centimeter scale, can be healed, provided that the temperature is increased to 80-90 °C. This article presents a new DA polymer network that can heal at room temperature through a smart design of the network that increases the molecular mobility in the material. This new material is used to develop the first healable soft robotic prototype that can autonomously recover from severe, realistic damage. The soft pneumatic hand can recover from various types of injuries, including being cut completely in half, without the need for a temperature increase. After healing, the performance of the soft robotic prototype is recovered.