A Highly Robust Amphibious Soft Robot with Imperceptibility Based on a Water-stable and Self-healing Ionic Conductor.

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are widely exploited for actuating soft machines and granting soft robots with capability to operate in both underwater and on-land environments is important to make them adapt to more complex situations. Here, we presenteded a DEA-driven, highly robust, amphibious imperceptible soft robot (AISR) based on an all-environment stable ionic conductive material. We developed a soft, self-healable, all-environment stable ionic conductor by introducing cooperative ion-dipole interactions to provide underwater stability as well as efficient suppression of ion penetration. By tuning molecular structures of the material, we achieved a 50-time device lifetime increase compared with unmodified [EMI][TFSI]-based devices and excellent underwater actuating performance. With the synthesized ionic electrode, our DEA-driven soft robot exhibited amphibious functionality to traverse hydro-terrestrial regions. When encountering the damages, the robot showed good damage resilience and could self-heal underwater and it also exhibited imperceptibility to light, sound and heat. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.