Flagellum‐Inspired Soft Rotary Motor

Abstract

AbstractSoft robots have gained significant attention in recent years owing to their high safety in human–machine interactions and exceptional adaptability to unpredictable environments. Despite great advances, achieving continuous rotation with tunable stepping angle in soft robots remains a challenge. Herein, inspired by the stepping rotation strategy of the flagellum, an artificial soft rotary motor capable of bidirectional continuous rotation and tunable stepping angles is presented. The motor features a wide range of stepping angles (−72.5° to 73.4°), enabling it to rotate to any angle position with high resolution. The soft motor also exhibits high rotation speed (18.23 r min−1), zero‐energy position‐holding, and excellent durability. Furthermore, the potential applications of the soft rotary motors, including tuning the grasping direction of a soft gripper and adjusting the winding direction of a soft tentacle is demonstrated. This work offers a universal soft fluidic component for soft robots, endowing them with enhanced agility and movement capabilities.