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The Development of a Venus Flytrap Inspired Soft Robot Driven by IPMC

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Abstract

In recent years, more and more creatures in nature have become the source of inspiration for people to study bionic soft robots. Many such robots appear in the public’s vision. In this paper, a Venus flytrap robot similar to the biological Venus flytrap in appearance was designed and prepared. It was mainly cast by Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMs) and driven by the flexible material of Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMCs). Combining with ANSYS and related experiments, the appropriate voltage and the size of IPMC were determined. The results showed that the performance of the Venus flytrap robot was the closest to the biological Venus flytrap when the size of IPMC length, width and driving voltage reach to 3 cm, 1 cm and 5.5 V, respectively. Moreover, the closing speed and angle reached 8.22°/s and 37°, respectively. Finally, the fly traps also could be opened and closed repeatedly and captured a small ball with a mass of 0.3 g firmly in its middle and tip.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial assistance from the Key Laboratory Project of Expressway Construction Machinery of Shaanxi Province, China (300102259510) and the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province, China (2018ZDXM-GY-088) and Analysis and compensation friction error of inclined installation feed system for NC machine tools, China (17JK0509) and Study on mechanism and suppression strategy of friction error for CNC machine tools, China (2017JM5042).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’ an, 710054, China

    Jiahua Li, Aifen Tian & Yue Sun

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’ an, 710054, China

    Bin Feng

  3. Shaanxi Science and Technology Holding Group, Shaanxi Kekong Technology Industry Research Institute Co. Ltd, Xi’ an, 710000, China

    Hongyan Wang

  4. The Key Laboratory of Road Construction Technology and Equipment MOE, Chang’ an University, Xi’ an, 710064, China

    Xinrong Zhang

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  1. Jiahua Li
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Correspondence to Aifen Tian.

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Li, J., Tian, A., Sun, Y. et al. The Development of a Venus Flytrap Inspired Soft Robot Driven by IPMC. J Bionic Eng 20, 406–415 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-022-00250-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-022-00250-9

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