Moisture‐Driven Cellulose Actuators with Directional Motion and Programmable Shapes

Abstract

The hygroscopic motion of plants has inspired the development of moisture‐activated soft actuators. These actuators driven by ambient moisture sources are of great research interest in robotics and self‐regulating textiles. However, these actuators often have slow motion and can only perform bending and twisting motions. Herein, a cellulose film‐based fast‐morphing and motion‐programmable soft actuator is presented that can generate caterpillar‐like movement. The cellophane films reported here bend almost instantaneously under changing humidity, with a large bending curvature, high repeatability, and negligible hysteresis. Different actuation modes are studied using both coated and uncoated cellophane films. The uncoated cellophane film can continuously move on a moist substrate through autonomous bending–rolling–flipping (or oscillating) cycles. A facile strategy is used here to control the rolling direction and facilitate the flipping motion by offsetting its center of gravity during deformation by adding appropriate weights on the end of the actuator. The coated cellophane film is used to fabricate motion‐programmable actuators through heat‐laminating. Several actuator structures are designed and fabricated and their diverse moisture‐induced motions are demonstrated.