Stretchable bifilar coils for soft adhesion and sensing

• Main Authors: Jianglong Guo, Jonathan Rossiter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-05-01
• Series: Materials & Design
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127520300782

It is desirable to equip soft-smart materials and structures with actuation, sensing, and adhesion functionalities. A multifunctional stretchable bifilar coil capable of soft adhesion and sensing is presented in this work. The fully-soft flat bifilar coil, based on the Tesla coil design, can be fabricated by encapsulating a cost-effective, easy-to-implement, and scalable liquid-metal-elastomer-tube in a soft planar composite. By combining pneumatic actuation of the soft coil with application of a high voltage across the two electrodes, a morphologically adaptive and soft electroadhesive is demonstrated and can be used to lift lightweight and flexible textiles from curved surfaces. At the same time, capacitive, resistive, and inductive sensing functionalities can be achieved by interrogating the bifilar coil. This stretchable bifilar coil has the potential to enable soft multimodal adhesives such as entirely-soft electro-magneto adhesives with incorporated soft resistive, capacitive, and inductive sensing for soft robotics and implantable devices. Keywords: Stretchable bifilar coil, Liquid metal elastomer composite, Multimodal soft sensing, Soft adhesion