Programmable Shape-Change and Crawling Gels

The living world is composed of materials with a large water content and understanding how to create smart hydrogel materials and structures is critical to enable human-collaborative robots, biomedical and adaptive devices. In this talk, I will describe results on temperature and DNA stimuli responsive gels that illustrate the use of molecular design, micro/mesoscale patterning, and segmentation and swelling/deswelling to drive complex shape change, programmability, and even unidirectional locomotion. Importantly, these functions are driven by temperature or chemical signals without the need for any wires, tethers, or external power sources. They illustrate the ability to control and manipulate shape, curvature, and displacement by environmental cues offering the potential for smart materials and devices with a wide range of applicability in engineering and medicine.