Control of a Hydrogel Based Soft Robot Using Light*

Soft robotics is an emerging field of research as robots built from soft materials can offer many advantages over conventional robots. Hydrogels are an interesting family of materials for realization of such soft robots as they can change their morphology by exchanging fluids with their environment. This further opens opportunities for biological applications. Remote control of these hydrogel robots with external stimuli such as light and magnetic fields can add useful functionality to them. Photo-responsive hydrogels provide an easy way to remotely control the shape of these robots by exposing them to light. This phenomenon can be exploited to design robots that can transit between multiple modes of operation by changing their geometry. To this end, we report our theoretical work on the light induced deformations in these robots and the corresponding changes in functionality.