Liquid Crystal Elastomer - Liquid Metal Composite: Ultrafast, Untethered, and Programmable Actuation by Induction Heating
The liquid crystal elastomer - liquid metal (LCE-LM) composite consists of LM embedded between LCE layers enabling ultrafast, reversible and programmable actuations by eddy current induction heating. It integrates selective and sequential heating functions, that are further exploited for multimodal pop-up deformations, on-ground omnidirectional robotic motions, and in-water object manipulation and crawling.