Photo credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)
Researchers at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have developed a snake scale-inspired flexible, stretchable battery can not only be used in energy storage technology and disaster situations, but also soft robots as well as wearables. The individual scales on a snake are rigid, yet they can fold together to protect against external impact, while also possessing structural characteristics that allow them to be highly stretchable and move flexibly.
Photo credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)
KIMM’s highly stretchable battery boasts excellent stability and performance due to its mechanical meta structure that mimics a snake’s scale. Unlike typical wearable devices, in which the device’s frame and the battery are combined in a tight formation, this invention enables movement by connecting several small, hard batteries in a scale-like structure. For added safety, the shape of each battery cell was optimized to achieve high capacity per a unit size. The ultimate goal is to use these batteries for increasing the storage capacity of soft energy storage devices and use in multi-functional soft robots that combine artificial muscles with soft robot actuation technology.
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Photo credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)
The folding hinges of shape-morphing structures artificially model those of the snake, allowing the scale structures to freely deform despite being composed of rigid materials. In addition, this structure ensures durability and stability under multi-axial mechanical deformation,” said the research paper.
