Hydrogel Actuators as Responsive Instruments for Cheap Open Technology (HARICOT)

Hydrogel actuators are a class of actuators that use the swelling of a hydrogel to achieve movement. The fabrication of such actuators is usually cumbersome and, in many cases, expensive. Nowadays, sodium polyacrylate (NaPA) beads are being commercialized as toys, moisturizing agents and for decoration purposes. In this communication, we present a methodology for using commercially available hydrogel NaPA beads for the fabrication of a plethora of actuators. The here-described methodology has the advantage of being easy to implement using readily available materials and is versatile in terms of components, e.g., fabricating hydrogel/textile mixed actuator, actuator movements and cheap, a single actuator costing less than 0.1 Eurocent.