An esophagus-inspired magnetic-driven soft robot for directional transport of objects†

Abstract

Magnetic-controlled soft robots, owing to their advantages such as non-contact manipulation, flexible control, and rapid deformability, have experienced rapid development and widespread application. However, most of the existing magnetically driven soft robots are solid or two-dimensional planar structures, which can only achieve shape deformation such as bending, twisting, and stretching. So far as we know, hollow magnetically driven soft robots that can transport objects inside themselves continuously have rarely been reported. Inspired by the swallowing of the biological esophagus, this study introduces a magnetic esophagus-inspired soft robot (MESR) featuring a hollow corrugated tube structure that can transport objects in an on-demand way. The MESR incorporates a unique N–S magnetic pole distribution, endowing it with excellent self-contraction and deformation capabilities under the influence of a magnetic field. The distinctive hollow corrugated tube structure and magnetic-controlled contraction abilities enable the MESR to achieve object transport in both horizontal and vertical anti-gravity directions under external magnetic fields, with transportation speeds of 6.4 mm s⁻¹ and 5.2 mm s⁻¹, respectively. Abaqus numerical simulations further elucidated the magnetic-driven deformation mechanism of the MESR. Optimization of material properties and structural parameters was conducted to enhance MESR's object transport capabilities. Lastly, combining MESR's horizontal transport and vertical anti-gravity transport abilities, this study designed an on-demand object transport mechanism. The research provides an effective approach for achieving contraction deformation and material transport in magnetic-controlled soft robots, thereby expanding the functionality and application domains of such robotic systems.