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Popping, locking robots

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An interplay between deswelling and buckling in a polymer gel is harnessed to achieve sequential snap events for repeatable jumping motion, opening the door to autonomously moving soft robots.

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Fig. 1: Deswelling of a strip of silicone rubber.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Autonomous Matter Department, AMOLF, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Johannes T. B. Overvelde

  2. Institute for Complex Molecular Systems and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

    Johannes T. B. Overvelde

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  1. Johannes T. B. Overvelde
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Correspondence to Johannes T. B. Overvelde.

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Overvelde, J.T.B. Popping, locking robots. Nat. Mater. 20, 1590–1591 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-01157-2

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