Scientists have developed a tiny 'claw machine' that is able to pick up and drop a marble-sized ball in response to exposure to chemical vapors. The findings point to a technique that can enable soft actuators--the parts of a machine that make it move--to perform multiple tasks without the need for additional costly materials.
Scientists have developed a tiny 'claw machine' that is able to pick up and drop a marble-sized ball in response to exposure to chemical vapors. The findings point to a technique that can enable soft actuators--the parts of a machine that make it move--to perform multiple tasks without the need for additional costly materials.
To test the claw machine's ability to perform multiple tasks, the researchers first exposed it to acetone. In the presence of this vapor, the device gripped a red cotton ball and stretched so that it could drop it in a box. When the team exposed the machine to ethanol vapor, it grabbed the cotton ball and removed it from the box.
To overcome this challenge, Khashab and colleagues developed a claw machine made from a polymer matrix containing molecular cages with the organic compound urea. The researchers chose urea for the cages because the compound can form multiple hydrogen bonds, allowing the urea molecules to rapidly reconfigure when they are exposed to different molecules in vapors. As a result, the material's properties can be precisely controlled, making it easy to customize.
Next, Khashab and colleagues plan to study the claw machine's energy density and how efficiently it converts energy so that they can enhance its performance, she says. They will also test its ability to produce electrical signals when the soft actuator is combined with materials that generate an electric charge, with the ultimate goal of developing flexible wearable electronic devices, says Khashab.
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