Professor Chun Sungwoo’s research team from the Department of Electronics and Information Engineering at Korea University Sejong Campus, in collaboration with research teams from the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), has developed a ‘stiffness-tunable velvet worm-inspired soft adhesive robot.’ This bio-inspired adhesive control micro-robot is expected to be potentially useful for diagnostics and treatments targeting biological tissues and organisms.

 

(From left) Professor Chun Sungwoo from the Department of Electronics and Information Engineering at Korea University Sejong Campus and Professor Metin Sitti from the Max Planck Institute.

 

The technology for precisely controlling adhesion and detachment on target surfaces in biological environments is known to be a core technique for surgical tools, robots, and cancer treatments. However, achieving both delicate adhesion and detachment simultaneously has been a very challenging task. In particular, the ability to grasp wrinkled and soft biological surfaces at low pressure without causing surface damage has been regarded as an unresolved problem.

 

To overcome these limitations, the joint research team was inspired by the secretion of velvet worms. They utilized magneto-rheological elastomers (MRE) to implement rapid stiffness changes controlled by external magnetic fields. This led to the development of a precise adhesive control robot with stability and repeatability.

 

This technology demonstrated its applicability in various tasks within biological environments, such as wireless adhesive robots carrying objects, removing nuts from bolts, and performing surgeries to remove mouse tumors. It proved to maintain adhesion control and large contact areas stably.

 

Professor Chun stated, ‘This study is significant in that it solved the difficulty of delicate adhesion-detachment control in biological environments not through complex mechanical structures but through a nature-inspired bio-robot.’

 

The research team plans to further enhance the technology's completeness to a level that can be utilized in industrial fields through in-depth studies.

 

On November 20, the results of this study were published in the international journal Science Advancesunder the title ‘Stiffness-tunable velvet worm-inspired soft adhesive robot’ and were selected as the cover paper.

 

This research was led by Dr. Min Hyunho from MIT (first author), Professor Chun Sungwoo from the Department of Electronics and Information Engineering (corresponding author), and Professor Metin Sitti from the Max Planck Institute (corresponding author). It was also supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea’s Excellent Young Researchers Program, the Original Technology Development Program, the STEAM program, and the University ICT Research Center program, with participation from ETH Zurich, Hanyang University, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).

△ Cover of the paper titled "Stiffness-tunable velvet worm-inspired soft adhesive robot"