ArticleScience advances2023
Autonomous, untethered gait-like synchronization of lobed loops made from liquid crystal elastomer fibers via spontaneous snap-through.
Article in Science advances, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Light-Responsive 4D Printing of Carbon Nanotube-Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Directional Actuated Bending and Biomimetic Robotics.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- High Center-of-Mass, Multi-Legged Soft Robots Powered by Geometrically Encoded Liquid Crystal Elastomer Arc Appendages.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Physics-Informed Neural Network-Enabled Forward Prediction and Inverse Design of Ring Origami.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Rod Origami (RodOri) Spring Metamaterials for Tunable Vibration Control via Tailored Structural Instabilities.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Twirlbot: Tumbleweed-inspired rolling robot.Science advances · 2026Article
- Coupling programmable shape morphing and solvent-fueled propulsion in a soft bicontinuous composite.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Continuous fabrication of Janus liquid crystal elastomer fibers with programmable actuation.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Autonomous codesign and fabrication of multistimuli-responsive material systems.Science advances · 2025Article
- Supramolecular Chalcogen-Bonded Shape Memory Actuators.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- Aerial Track-Guided Autonomous Soft Ring Robot.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Emergent Locomotion in Self-Sustained, Mechanically Connected Soft Matter Rings.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- An Ultra-Fast Rolling Double-Helical Robot Driven by Constant Humidity.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- An autonomous snapper featuring adaptive actuation and embodied intelligence.Science advances · 2025Article
- Coaxial Direct Ink Writing of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Elastomers in 3D Architectures.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Redefining the limits of actuating fibers via mesophase control: From contraction to elongation.Science advances · 2025Article
- Embedded Physical Intelligence in Liquid Crystalline Polymer Actuators and Robots.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Light-steerable locomotion using zero-elastic-energy modes.Nature materials · 2024Article
- Submillimeter fiber robots capable of decoupled macro-micro motion for endoluminal manipulation.Science advances · 2024Article
- Multimodal Autonomous Locomotion of Liquid Crystal Elastomer Soft Robot.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Sidewinder-Inspired Self-Adjusting, Lateral-Rolling Soft Robots for Autonomous Terrain Exploration.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The transition from one equilibrium state to another via rapid snap-through can store elastic energy and release it as kinetic energy for rapid motion as seen in Venus flytrap and hummingbird to catch insects mid-flight. They are explored in soft robotics for repeated and autonomous motions. In this study, we synthesize curved liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) fibers as the building blocks that can undergo buckling instability upon heated on a hot surface, leading to autonomous snap-through and rolling behaviors. When they are connected into lobed loops, where each fiber is geometrically constrained by the neighboring ones, they demonstrate autonomous, self-regulated, and repeated synchronization with a frequency of ~1.8 Hz. By adding a rigid bead on the fiber, we can fine-tune the actuation direction and speed (up to ~2.4 mm/s). Last, we demonstrate various gait-like locomotion patterns using the loops as the robot's legs.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.