Versatile adhesive skin enhances robotic interactions with the environment

Abstract

Electronic skins endow robots with sensory functions but often lack the multifunctionality of natural skin, such as switchable adhesion. Current smart adhesives based on elastomers have limited adhesion tunability, which hinders their effective use for both carrying heavy loads and performing dexterous manipulations. Here, we report a versatile, one-size-fits-all robotic adhesive skin using shape memory polymers with tunable rubber-to-glass phase transitions. The adhesion strength of our adhesive skin can be changed from minimal (~1 kilopascal) for sensing and handling ultralightweight objects to ultrastrong (>1 megapascal) for picking up and lifting heavy objects. Our versatile adhesive skin is expected to greatly enhance the ability of intelligent robots to interact with their environment.