A automatic engineering group led by Professor Alfonso Ngan Hing-wan, Chair Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, and Kingboard Professor in Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, a University of Hong Kong (HKU) published an essay in Science Robotics on 30 May 2018 (EST) that introduces a novel actuating element — nickel hydroxide-oxyhydroxide — that can be powered by manifest (Vis) light, electricity, and other stimuli. The element actuation can be instantly triggered by Vis light to furnish a quick deformation and strive a force homogeneous to 3000 times of the possess weight. The element cost of a standard actuator is as low as HKD 4 per cm2 and can be simply built within 3 hours.
Among several stimuli, light-induced actuating materials are rarely fascinating since they capacitate wireless operation of robots. However, really few light dri