Multi-site damage sensing and localization soft-matter electronics and related systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11682276-B2
Application number	US-202017095564-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2020
Priority date	Nov 11, 2019
Publication date	Jun 20, 2023
Grant date	Jun 20, 2023

Abstract

Soft-matter technologies are essential for emerging applications in wearable computing, human-machine interaction, and soft robotics. However, as these technologies gain adoption in society and interact with unstructured environments, material and structure damage becomes inevitable. A robotic material that mimics soft tissues found in biological systems may be used to identify, compute, and respond to damage. This material includes liquid metal droplets dispersed in soft elastomers that rupture when damaged to create electrically conductive pathways that are identified with a soft active-matrix grid. These technologies may be used to autonomously identify damage, calculate severity, and respond to prevent failure within robotic systems.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid metal embedded elastomer composite material comprising:
a polymer;
a plurality of droplets comprising a liquid metal dispersed within the polymer; and
at least one electrically conductive array comprising a conductive material applied to a surface of the polymer; and
optionally, a polymer sealing layer applied to the surface of the at least one electrically conductive array;
wherein the material is insulating when the plurality of droplets is not ruptured, and
wherein the material is conductive when at least a portion of the plurality of droplets is ruptured.

2. The material of claim 1 comprising at least one conductive network comprising an interconnected series of ruptured droplets of the liquid metal.

3. The material of claim 1 , wherein the material detects at least one stimulus selected from the group consisting of compression, fracture, puncture, rupturing, cutting, tearing, and ripping when at least a portion of the plurality of droplets is ruptured.

4. The material of claim 1 , wherein the material is insulating when the material detects compression and the plurality of droplets is not ruptured, and the material is conductive when the material detects at least one of fracture, puncture, rupturing, cutting, tearing, and ripping and at least a portion of the plurality of droplets is ruptured.

5. The material of claim 1 , wherein the polymer and polymer sealing layer independently comprise at least one of polyurethane, polysiloxane, polyacrylate, natural rubber, block copolymer elastomers, and thermoplastic elastomers.

6. The material of claim 1 , wherein the liquid metal comprises at least one of eutectic gallium indium, gallium alloys, gallium-indium-tin, and mercury.

7. The material of claim 1 , wherein the liquid metal comprises a eutectic alloy.

8. The material of claim 1 , wherein the droplets comprise a diameter from 10 nanometers to 400 micrometers.

9. The material of claim 1 , wherein the droplets and the conductive material comprise the same liquid metal.

10. The material of claim 1 , wherein the at least one electrically conductive array comprises a first electrically conductive array and a second electrically conductive array, and the polymer is intermediate the first electrically conductive array and the second electrically conductive array.

11. The material of claim 10 , wherein each of the at least one electrically conductive coating independently comprises at least one liquid metal trace.

12. The material of claim 11 , wherein each of the at least one liquid metal trace comprises at least one of a line and a serpentine.

13. The material of claim 12 , wherein each of the first electrically conductive array and the second electrically conductive array independently comprise an electrically conductive grid having orthogonal liquid metal traces.

14. A device comprising the material of claim 13 .

15. The device of claim 14 comprising a substrate coated with the polymer.

16. The device of claim 15 , wherein the substrate comprises at least one of rigid plastic, flexible plastic, metal, fabric, ceramic and glass.

17. The device of claim 14 , wherein the device is selected from the group consisting of artificial skin, humanoid robots, robotic prosthetics, and soft wearable robots.

18. The device of claim 14 comprising an output device configured to output an indicator based upon the stimuli detected by the material, wherein the indicator includes at least one of an audible output, a visual output, or a tactile output.

19. The device of claim 18 , wherein the indicator is not activated when one of the at least one stimuli is detected and the indicator is activated when another one of the at least one stimuli is detected.

20. A method of making the device of claim 14 , the method comprising:
applying the polymer comprising the plurality of droplets having that liquid metal dispersed therein to a substrate;
applying a coating of liquid metal to the polymer to form the at least one electrically conductive array; and

optionally, applying the polymer sealing layer to the at least one electrically conductive array.

Assignees

• Univ Carnegie Mellon

Inventors

• Majidi Carmel
• Bartlett Michael D
• Markvicka Eric J

Classifications

• C08K2201/001

  Conductive additives · CPC title

• B05D1/322

  Removable films used as masks · CPC title

• B05D1/02

  performed by spraying · CPC title

• C08K3/10

  Metal compounds · CPC title

• G08B7/06 Primary

  using electric transmission {, e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources} · CPC title