Figure 2: Realization of the autonomous gripper.
Schematic pictures of the fabrication process: (a) Arrays of UV curable resin are put on a glass substrate coated with rubbed PVA (the arrow indicates the rubbing direction). (b) A 20 μm LC cell is prepared by placing another glass slide coated with homeotropic alignment layer on the top, and subsequent curing with UV light to solidify the resin. (c) Liquid crystal monomers are infiltrated into the cell, and then UV-polymerized at 30 °C. (d) The cell is opened, and strips of LCE actuator are cut out from the substrate along the rubbing direction. (e) Chemical composition of the LC monomer mixture. (f) Optical images of the fabricated gripper after connecting to the fibre tip. (g) Gripper automatically closes while approaching to the mirror surface with a constant power of 55 mW. (h) At a constant distance d=7 mm, gripper can be switched between closed and open stages by manually tuning the light power (0, 20, 40, 50 mW). All scale bars correspond to 5 mm.
