Soft inflatable robots are a promising paradigm for applications that benefit from their inherent safety and adaptability. However, for perception, complex connections of rigid electronics both in ...hardware and software remain the mainstay. Although recent efforts have created soft analogs of individual rigid components, the integration of sensing and control systems is challenging to achieve without compromising the complete softness, form factor, or capabilities. Here, we report a soft self-sensing tensile valve that integrates the functional capabilities of sensors and control valves to directly transform applied tensile strain into distinctive steady-state output pressure states using only a single, constant pressure source. By harnessing a unique mechanism, "helical pinching", we derive physical sharing of both sensing and control valve structures, achieving all-in-one integration in a compact form factor. We demonstrate programmability and applicability of our platform, illustrating a pathway towards fully soft, electronics-free, untethered, and autonomous robotic systems.
Pen-drawing is an intuitive, convenient, and creative fabrication method for delivering emergent and adaptive design to real devices. To demonstrate the application of pen-drawing to robot ...construction, we developed pen-drawn Marangoni swimmers that perform complex programmed tasks using a simple and accessible manufacturing process. By simply drawing on substrates using ink-based Marangoni fuel, the swimmers demonstrate advanced robotic motions such as polygon and star-shaped trajectories, and navigate through maze. The versatility of pen-drawing allows the integration of the swimmers with time-varying substrates, enabling multi-step motion tasks such as cargo delivery and return to the original place. We believe that our pen-based approach will significantly expand the potential applications of miniaturized swimming robots and provide new opportunities for simple robotic implementations.
Objectives
To investigate bacterial infection in the seminal vesicles by bacteriological examination and radionuclide imaging in men with chronic prostatitis.
Methods
The study included 50 patients ...with chronic prostatitis who showed hot uptake in seminal vesicles on Tc‐99 m ciprofloxacin imaging and eight patients who did not show hot uptake. The evaluation included the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index and four‐glass test. In all participants, transperineal aspiration of seminal vesicle fluid under the guidance of transrectal ultrasonography and bacteriological examination was carried out.
Results
Of the 50 patients who showed hot uptake in the seminal vesicles on the isotope study, microorganisms were isolated from the seminal vesicle fluid in 17 patients (positive predictive value, 34%). The most common causative organisms were Escherichia coli in 13 patients (26%), followed by coagulase‐negative Staphylococcus species in two patients (4%), Enterococcus faecalis in one patient (2%) and Chlamydia trachomatis in one patient (2%). No microorganisms were isolated in the eight patients who did not show hot uptake in the seminal vesicles (negative predictive value, 100%). However, there were no significant differences in National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index total scores and subscores between the study groups.
Conclusions
Chronic bacterial seminal vesiculitis might simultaneously affect a considerable portion of patients with chronic prostatitis, although the clinical implication of the disease remains to be further investigated.
Soft magnetic materials have shown promise in diverse applications due to their fast response, remote actuation, and large penetration range for various conditions. Herein, a new soft magnetic ...composite material capable of reprogramming its magnetization profile without changing intrinsic magnetic properties of embedded magnetic particles or the molecular property of base material is reported. This composite contains magnetic microspheres in an elastomeric matrix, and the magnetic microspheres are composed of ferromagnetic microparticles encapsulated with oligomeric-PEG. By controlling the encapsulating polymer phase transition, the magnetization profiles of the magnetic composite can be rewritten by physically realigning the ferromagnetic particles. Diverse magnetic actuators with reprogrammable magnetization profiles are developed to demonstrate the complete reprogramming of complex magnetization profile.
Digital Mechanical Metamaterials
In article number 2304302, Jiyun Kim and co‐workers introduce a metamaterial composite system that allows for gradational and reversible adjustments in various ...mechanical in‐formation by translating encoded digital pattern information into discrete stiffness states of the mechanical pixels. This digitally programmable material is expected to pave the way toward multi environment soft robots and interactive machines.
Incorporating perception into robots or objects holds great potential to revolutionize daily human life. To achieve this, critical factors include the design of an integrable three-dimensional (3D) ...soft sensor with self-powering capability, a wide working range, and tuneable functionalities. Here, we introduce a highly compressible 3D-printed soft magnetoelastic sensor with a wide strain sensing range. Inspired by the lattice metamaterial, which offers a highly porous structure with tuneable mechanical properties, we realized a remarkably compliant 3D self-powering sensor. Using magnetoelastic composite materials and 3D printing combined with sacrificial molding, a broad design space for constituent materials and structures is investigated, allowing for tuneable mechanical properties and sensor performances. These sensors are successfully integrated with two robotic systems as the robot operation and perception units, enabling robot control and recognition of diverse physical interactions with a user. Overall, we believe that this work represents a cornerstone for compliant 3D self-powered soft sensors, giving impetus to the development of advanced human–machine interfaces.
Inspired by the adaptive features exhibited by biological organisms like the octopus, soft machines that can tune their shape and mechanical properties have shown great potential in applications ...involving unstructured and continuously changing environments. However, current soft machines are far from achieving the same level of adaptability as their biological counterparts, hampered by limited real‐time tunability and severely deficient reprogrammable space of properties and functionalities. As a steppingstone toward fully adaptive soft robots and smart interactive machines, an encodable multifunctional material that uses graphical stiffness patterns is introduced here to in situ program versatile mechanical capabilities without requiring additional infrastructure. Through independently switching the digital binary stiffness states (soft or rigid) of individual constituent units of a simple auxetic structure with elliptical voids, in situ and gradational tunability is demonstrated here in various mechanical qualities such as shape‐shifting and ‐memory, stress–strain response, and Poisson's ratio under compressive load as well as application‐oriented functionalities such as tunable and reusable energy absorption and pressure delivery. This digitally programmable material is expected to pave the way toward multienvironment soft robots and interactive machines.
An encodable mechanical metamaterial that uses graphical stiffness patterns to in situ program versatile mechanical capabilities is demonstrated. Independently switching digital stiffness states in constituent units enables extensive programmability across various qualities, including tunable shape, stress–strain response, Poisson's ratio, and offers functions like adaptive energy absorption and pressure delivery.
Magnetoelectric Paper
In article number 2311154 by Myoung Hoon Song, Chaenyung Cha, Jiyun Kim, and co‐workers, a flexible, biodegradable, and wireless bioelectronic paper is developed showing ...significant scalability, design flexibility, and rapid customizability through simple paper crafting techniques such as origami and kirigami.
Bioelectronic implants delivering electrical stimulation offer an attractive alternative to traditional pharmaceuticals in electrotherapy. However, achieving simple, rapid, and cost‐effective ...personalization of these implants for customized treatment in unique clinical and physical scenarios presents a substantial challenge. This challenge is further compounded by the need to ensure safety and minimal invasiveness, requiring essential attributes such as flexibility, biocompatibility, lightness, biodegradability, and wireless stimulation capability. Here, a flexible, biodegradable bioelectronic paper with homogeneously distributed wireless stimulation functionality for simple personalization of bioelectronic implants is introduced. The bioelectronic paper synergistically combines i) lead‐free magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENs) that facilitate electrical stimulation in response to external magnetic field and ii) flexible and biodegradable nanofibers (NFs) that enable localization of MENs for high‐selectivity stimulation, oxygen/nutrient permeation, cell orientation modulation, and biodegradation rate control. The effectiveness of wireless electrical stimulation in vitro through enhanced neuronal differentiation of neuron‐like PC12 cells and the controllability of their microstructural orientation are shown. Also, scalability, design flexibility, and rapid customizability of the bioelectronic paper are shown by creating various 3D macrostructures using simple paper crafting techniques such as cutting and folding. This platform holds promise for simple and rapid personalization of temporary bioelectronic implants for minimally invasive wireless stimulation therapies.
A flexible, biodegradable bioelectronic paper featuring homogeneously distributed wireless stimulation functionality is presented. This paper synergistically combines lead‐free magnetoelectric nanoparticles for external magnetic field‐induced electrical stimulation and flexible, biodegradable nanofibers for high‐selectivity stimulation, oxygen/nutrient permeation, cell orientation modulation, and biodegradation rate control. Scalability, design flexibility, and rapid customizability are demonstrated through simple paper crafting techniques such as origami and kirigami.
