Light-driven soft actuator based on graphene and WSe₂ nanosheets composite for multimodal motion and remote manipulation

Remote controlled soft actuators have attracted ever-increasing interest in industrial, medical, robotics, and engineering fields. Soft actuators are charming than normal tools in executing dedicate tasks due to small volume and flexible body they have. However, it remains a challenge to design soft actuator that can adapt to multi-environments under remote stimuli with promising nano materials. Herein, we have developed a kind of near-infrared laser driven soft actuators with multi locomotive modes based on WSe₂ and graphene nanosheets heterojunction. Different locomotion modes are driven by photothermal effect induced deformation to adapt to different working conditions. Moreover, the specially designed gripper driven by pulsed laser can lift a heavy load which is four times of its weight. This work broadens the choice of advanced nanomaterials for photothermal conversion of soft actuators. It is promising to realize applications including photothermal therapy and complex environment detection through the combination of the intelligent robot design and optical fiber system.