Design and Investigation of Electrospun Artificial Muscle Fibers

这项拨款将支持那些将创造与软机器人和主动结构相关的新知识的研究，这些知识广泛应用于生物医学、制造业和能源部门，并将有助于促进我们国家的健康和繁荣。该基金允许设计和研究用静电纺丝技术制造的人造肌肉纤维。人造肌肉材料在受到外界刺激时会产生主动变形和力，表现得像真肌肉一样。以往研制的人造肌肉材料存在可扩展性差、响应速度慢等问题，极大地限制了其应用。因此，人造肌肉的性能越来越被认为是设计新型软机器人和主动结构的瓶颈之一。该人造肌肉材料具有优异的机械性能、更快的响应速度、多样的驱动模式和优异的可扩展性。这些新材料将有助于软机器人、新型执行器和能量转换系统等领域的快速发展。该项目还将为研究生和本科生提供跨学科的教育和培训机会，并寻求吸引代表性不足的群体进入科学和工程领域。即将开发的人造肌肉的短传播演示将为弱势的第一代高中生和大学生提供一个有吸引力的教育和研究平台。由电纺丝聚合物纤维组装而成的人造肌肉可以很容易地制成不同形状和不同驱动模式的人造肌肉，可以按比例放大和缩小到不同的尺寸，以响应不同的刺激。全面了解电纺丝聚合物纤维的加工-结构-性能关系，是合理设计人工肌纤维的基础。研究团队将对半晶聚酰胺、聚电解质和液晶聚合物三种不同类型的聚合物纤维进行静电纺丝，利用新型静电纺丝工具对这些纤维进行系统的化学-热-机械表征，并通过将这些聚合物纤维组装成不同的模式，设计出具有不同驱动模式的人造肌肉。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant will support the research that will create new knowledge relevant to soft robotics and active structures that are widely used in biomedical, manufacturing and energy sectors and will serve to advance our national health and prosperity. The grant allows the design and investigation of artificial muscle fibers fabricated from electrospinning technique. Artificial muscle materials can generate an active deformation and force when subjected to external stimuli, behaving like real muscle. Previously developed artificial muscle materials have often suffered from poor scalability and slow response, which greatly limit their applications. Consequently, performance of artificial muscle has been increasingly recognized as one of the bottlenecks in designing novel soft robots and active structures. The artificial muscle material in this grant will have superior mechanical properties, a faster response rate, diverse actuating modes and excellent scalability. These new materials will contribute to the rapidly developing fields of soft robotics, novel actuators and energy conversion systems. The project will also provide interdisciplinary education and training opportunities to graduate and undergraduate students and seeks to attract underrepresented groups into science and engineering. Short disseminated demonstrations of artificial muscles to be developed will serve as an attractive education and research platform for disadvantaged, first generation high school and college students.The artificial muscle assembled from electrospun polymer fibers can be easily fabricated into different shapes with various actuating modes, scaled up and down to various sizes, made to respond to different stimuli. A comprehensive understanding of processing-structure-property relationship for the electrospun polymer fibers is essential for the rational design of the artificial muscle fibers. The research team will electrospin three different types of polymer fibers: semicrystalline polyamide, polyelectrolyte and liquid crystal polymer, conduct systematic chemo-thermo-mechanical characterizations of these individual fibers using novel electrospinning tools, and design artificial muscle with diverse actuating modes by assembling these polymer fibers into different patterns.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.