journal article·2025-02

Leech‐Inspired Amphibious Soft Robot Driven by High‐Voltage Triboelectricity

Qiwei Zheng, Liming Xin, Qin Zhang, Fan Shen, Xiao Lu, Chen Cao, Chuanfu Xin, Yang Zhao, Heming Liu, Yan Peng, Jun Luo, Hengyu Guo, Zhongjie Li

Advanced Materials· Volume 37· Issue 8
Publisher page

Abstract

Abstract Leech locomotion, characterized by alternating sucker attachment and body contraction provides high adaptability and stability on complex terrains. Herein, a leech‐inspired triboelectric soft robot is proposed for the first time, capable of amphibious movement, climbing, and load‐carrying crawling. A high‐performance triboelectric bionic robot system is developed to drive and control electro‐responsive soft robots. Its core components include: i) a leech‐inspired soft robot (LSR) made from segmented dielectric elastomer muscles. ii) The triboelectric sucker produces anisotropic frictional forces. iii) The multi‐channel high‐voltage output triboelectric nanogenerator (HDC‐TENG) effectively drives the LSR. iv) The high‐voltage triboelectric control unit adapted for the HDC‐TENG enables flexible LSR control. Using the scalable structure of the dielectric elastomer muscles enables the LSR to achieve a maximum crawling speed of 0.39 body lengths per minute on land (45 mm min−1) and 0.22 body lengths per minute in liquid (30.5 mm min−1). It can also carry a payload of 11.55 grams on acrylic while crawling. This research provides a sustainable and promising new solution for self‐powered high‐voltage energy sources suitable for electro‐responsive soft robots.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials · Soft Robotics and Applications · Dielectric materials and actuators

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation Shanghai University Shanghai 200444 P. R. China

School of Computer Engineering and Science Shanghai University Shanghai 200444 P. R. China

Institute of Artificial Intelligence Shanghai University Shanghai 200444 P. R. China

State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission for Advanced Equipment Chongqing University Chongqing 400044 P. R. China

Department of Applied Physics Chongqing University Chongqing 400044 P. R. China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality

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