Multifunctional Origami-Inspired Bimodal Wireless Pneumatic Soft Actuator

Pneumatic soft actuators hold great potential in applications such as surgery and artificial muscles, while facing limitations mainly due to external pumps. This study presents an origami-inspired soft actuator eliminating traditional pumps through a liquid–gas phase transition mechanism. This actuator undergoes axial stretching below a critical pressure of 5.5 kPa and radial expansion above this pressure, demonstrating bimodal deformation. This dual-mode response enables high output force and versatile deformation, suitable for applications like channel dilation and occlusion. By integrating origami’s geometric programmability with soft materials, deformation is easily controlled via simple processing, yielding a bioinspired gripper. Additionally, actuators integrating magnetic terminals achieve inchworm-like multigait motion in confined spaces, highlighting broad potential applications. Our constructed origami-inspired wireless pneumatic soft actuator enables overcoming previous functionality and deformation mode limitations, providing compact programmable solutions that advance soft robotics.