SunSirs: From PEEK to TPE: How the Top 9 New Chemical Materials Are Shaping the Future of Humanoid Robots

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology, humanoid robots are transitioning from laboratory concepts to the realities of commercialization. From the first full-size humanoid robot, WABOT-1, developed at Tokyo's Waseda University in 1967, to the advanced models like Tesla's Optimus and Boston Dynamics' Atlas, humanoid robots have made significant strides in performance, flexibility, and intelligence. It is anticipated that by 2030, the global humanoid robot market will surpass the trillion-dollar mark, and this emerging industry is experiencing a golden period of explosive growth.

In the development process of humanoid robots, the innovation of material technology has played a crucial role in promoting it. Traditional metal materials, due to their inherent defects such as heavy weight, high energy consumption, and poor motion flexibility, have severely restricted the practicality and popularization of humanoid robots. The emergence of new high molecular materials and composite materials has provided new ways and solutions to solve these problems, becoming the core driving force for the technological breakthrough of humanoid robots.

Research data show that replacing metal parts with high-performance polymers can reduce the weight of robots by more than 30%, increase their motion speed by 15%-30%, and reduce energy consumption by 18%-25%. These significant performance improvements make humanoid robots more efficient, flexible, and energy-saving in actual applications, laying a solid foundation for their widespread use in industrial production, social services, medical care, family companionship, and other fields.

This paper will delve into nine new chemical materials that play a crucial role in the field of humanoid robots, analyzing their unique properties, application scenarios, and the significant impact they have on the development of the humanoid robot industry. Through the study of these materials, we can clearly see that the innovation of new chemical materials is not only a key driving force for the technological progress of humanoid robots but will also open up broad space for the future development of the humanoid robot industry.

The "super sub" of structural components: PEEK and PPS

In the structural design of humanoid robots, joint bearings and link components, like the joints and bones of the human body, play a crucial role in supporting and transmitting motion, demanding stringent performance requirements from the materials. PEEK materials, with their outstanding comprehensive properties, have become the ideal choice in this field.

PEEK is a high-performance thermoplastic polymer with excellent mechanical strength, featuring a tensile strength of over 90 MPa, which allows it to maintain structural stability under significant external forces. This ensures that the joints and links of the robot do not deform or damage during the execution of various complex movements. Additionally, PEEK has extremely high heat resistance, with a long-term use temperature of up to 260℃, ensuring that its performance is not significantly affected even in high-temperature environments. This is particularly important for some humanoid robots that need to operate under specific conditions. Furthermore, PEEK also has good chemical corrosion resistance and self-lubricity, effectively reducing friction and wear between components, extending the service life and reducing maintenance costs.

Tesla's Optimus Gen2 humanoid robot extensively uses PEEK material in its design, successfully achieving a weight reduction of 10 kilograms while increasing walking speed by 30%. This significant performance improvement fully demonstrates the enormous potential of PEEK material in optimizing the structural performance of humanoid robots. By using PEEK material to manufacture joint bearings and linkage components, Optimus Gen2 not only reduces its own weight and lowers energy consumption but also enhances the flexibility and efficiency of its movements, enabling it to perform various tasks more nimbly in practical applications.

Complementing PEEK materials is polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), which plays an indispensable role in the transmission components of humanoid robots. PPS exhibits excellent dimensional stability, with minimal dimensional changes under varying temperatures and humidity conditions, ensuring that gears, bearings, and other transmission components maintain precise fitment and accuracy throughout their long-term operation, guaranteeing the smoothness and precision of robot movements. Additionally, PPS boasts excellent chemical resistance, resistant to a wide range of chemicals, ensuring that it maintains good performance even in harsh working environments, providing a strong guarantee for the reliable operation of robots.

Suzhou Nappan provided PPS materials for a well-known robot manufacturer, which are used in the robot joint component project. Experimental data show that the energy loss of the robot joint with PPS bearings is reduced by 25%, and the service life is greatly extended. This case fully proves the significant advantages of PPS materials in improving the efficiency and reliability of the robot transmission system. In practical applications, the use of PPS materials makes the joint movement of the robot more smooth, the energy transmission more efficient, and reduces the frequency of faults caused by energy loss and component wear, improving the overall operation stability and working life of the robot.

In the field of structural materials, PEEK and PPS, with their unique performance advantages, have become key materials for the lightweight and high-performance realization of humanoid robots. Their application not only enhances the motion performance and work efficiency of robots but also provides a solid guarantee for the stable operation of robots in complex environments, promoting the development of humanoid robot technology to a higher level.

The "powerhouse" of the movement system: CFRP and UHMW-PE fibers

In the motion system of humanoid robots, the robotic arms and leg structures require high strength and lightweight properties to achieve efficient and flexible motion. Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have become the preferred material in this field due to their excellent strength-to-weight ratio, playing a crucial role in enhancing the motion performance of robots.

CFRP is composed of carbon fibers and a resin matrix, and it has significant characteristics of low density and high tensile strength. Its density is only about 1/3 of steel, yet it can achieve a tensile strength of over 3500 MPa. This excellent strength-to-weight ratio allows CFPR to significantly reduce its own weight while ensuring that the mechanical arms and leg structures have sufficient strength and rigidity. Compared with traditional metal materials, the use of CFPR in manufacturing mechanical arms and leg structures can achieve a weight reduction of 30%-60%, effectively reducing the overall energy consumption of robots and improving the efficiency of energy utilization.

The Atlas robot from Boston Dynamics fully leverages the advantages of CFRP in its design, with its leg structure made of CFRP material, successfully achieving difficult jumping movements. Due to the lightweight characteristics of CFRP material, the Atlas robot can move its legs more nimbly during motion, reducing the impact of inertia and thus achieving more flexible and efficient motion performance. In addition, CFRP also has good fatigue resistance, capable of withstanding the alternating stresses generated by the robot during frequent motion, ensuring the long-term reliability and stability of the leg structure.

In addition to CFRP, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) fibers have shown unique advantages in the application of tendons for dexterous hands in humanoid robots. UHMW-PE fibers possess ultra-high strength, which is 7-10 times that of steel, while also having an extremely light weight, with a density only about 1/8 that of steel. This combination of high strength and lightweight makes UHMW-PE fibers an ideal material for tendons in dexterous hands, directly influencing the precision, stability, and flexibility of the grip.

In practical applications, the UHMW-PE fiber from Nanshan Zhishang has been successfully applied to multiple robotic hand systems. Due to the high strength of the UHMW-PE fiber, the dexterous hand can withstand greater tensile forces when grasping objects, ensuring the stability of the grasping process and preventing objects from falling. At the same time, its lightweight characteristics make the tendons more flexible during motion, allowing them to quickly respond to control commands and achieve precise grasping actions. In addition, the UHMW-PE fiber also has excellent wear resistance and corrosion resistance, which can maintain good performance in a complex working environment, extending the service life of the dexterous hand tendons and reducing maintenance costs.

In the motion system of humanoid robots, CFRP and UHMW-PE fibers play irreplaceable roles in the robotic arm and leg structures and the tendons of the dexterous hand, respectively. Their application significantly enhances the motion performance of the robots, enabling them to exhibit higher efficiency and flexibility in a variety of complex tasks, and provides strong support for the widespread application of humanoid robots in industrial production, logistics handling, rescue operations, and other fields.

The "neural endings" of electronic and sensing systems: LCP, PDMS and PI thin films

In the electronic and sensing systems of humanoid robots, liquid crystal polymers (LCP) have become key materials for precision electronic components such as high-frequency signal connectors due to their excellent dielectric properties and dimensional stability, providing reliable support for signal transmission and electronic control in humanoid robots.

LCP is a high-performance polymer material with a liquid crystal state, which has unique advantages in the field of high-frequency signal transmission. Its low and stable dielectric constant can effectively reduce signal loss and distortion during transmission in a high-frequency environment, ensuring the rapid and accurate transmission of signals. This characteristic is crucial for humanoid robots, as they need to process a large amount of sensor data and control signals in real time during operation. Stable and high-speed signal transmission is the foundation for ensuring that robots can respond quickly and accurately execute tasks.

For example, Unitree H1 humanoid robot from Yutree Technology uses LCP materials in its design for precision electronic components such as high-frequency signal connectors. In actual operation, LCP materials ensure that various electronic signals can be transmitted stably and quickly in a high-precision, high-frequency complex environment, allowing the robot's joints and sensors to receive and feedback information in a timely manner, thus achieving precise control and efficient operation of the robot.

At the same time, LCP also has excellent dimensional stability, with minimal dimensional changes under different temperatures and humidities. This characteristic ensures that precision electronic components maintain precise fitment accuracy throughout their long-term use, avoiding signal transmission faults caused by dimensional changes and enhancing the reliability and stability of electronic systems.

In the field of perception of humanoid robots, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyimide (PI) films constitute the core materials of electronic skin, endowing robots with keen environmental perception capabilities, enabling them to sense changes in their surroundings like humans.

PDMS is a transparent, soft, and biocompatible silicone rubber material with excellent flexibility, a tensile elongation of >100%, and can well simulate the soft touch of human skin. Its surface modification characteristics facilitate integration with sensors and allow the robot to sense physical quantities such as temperature and pressure. The flexible sensor developed by Hanwei Technology based on PDMS has achieved a high sensitivity detection of 0.1kPa and can precisely sense the subtle pressure changes from the outside world. When the robot is performing a task, through this high sensitivity sensor, it can sense the pressure size and distribution when it contacts the object, thus achieving more accurate and gentle grasping movements to avoid damage to the object.

PI film, on the other hand, exhibits high temperature resistance, high mechanical strength, flexibility, insulation, and chemical stability. In electronic skin, PI film serves as a substrate material, providing a stable support structure for sensors. Its excellent flexibility allows the electronic skin to adhere to the surface of robots, bending and deforming with the robot's movements without affecting the performance of the sensors. The uSkin product from Japan's XELA Robotics uses PI film to achieve multimodal environmental perception, integrating various types of sensors to enable robots to sense temperature, humidity, touch, and other environmental information, allowing them to respond more intelligently in complex environments.

In the electronic and sensing systems of humanoid robots, LCP, PDMS, and PI films play a crucial role in signal transmission and environmental perception, respectively. Their application significantly enhances the electronic control accuracy and environmental perception capability of robots, enabling them to perceive external information more accurately, make quick and reasonable decisions, and provide important support for promoting the development of humanoid robots in the fields of intelligent interaction and service robots.

Case and bionic skin " flexible coat " : PA, PC-ABS and TPE

In the design of humanoid robots, the housing material not only needs to have good machining performance and mechanical strength to protect the internal precision electronic components and mechanical structures, but also needs to consider safety and comfort when interacting with humans. Polyamide (PA), commonly known as nylon, has been widely used in the manufacturing of humanoid robot shells due to its unique performance advantages.

PA is a thermoplastic plastic with excellent mechanical properties, featuring high tensile strength and the ability to withstand a certain degree of external impact, providing reliable protection for the internal components of the robot. At the same time, PA has good wear resistance, ensuring that the shell surface is not easily damaged by wear and scratches, maintaining the integrity of the robot's appearance even during frequent use and contact with external objects.

In addition, PA also has good chemical stability, able to resist the corrosion of common chemicals and adapt to different working environments. For example, the home robot Neo Gamma from Norway's 1X Technologies company uses a woven nylon material for its shell. This material not only has the above advantages of PA materials but also enhances the safety of the robot. The woven structure allows the shell to disperse energy when subjected to external force impacts, reducing damage to the internal structure. At the same time, the nylon shell gives a friendly appearance, making it more suitable for living and interacting with humans in a home environment.

Complementing PA materials are PC-ABS engineering plastics, which also hold a significant position in the manufacturing of humanoid robot shells. PC-ABS is an alloy material composed of polycarbonate (PC) and acrylonitrile但adiene-styrene (ABS), combining the high mechanical strength, heat resistance of PC and the ease of processing, impact resistance of ABS. This material is particularly suitable for manufacturing thin-walled, complex structures of robots, meeting the diversified design requirements of humanoid robot shells.

SoftBank's NAO robot uses PC-ABS engineering plastic as the main material for its shell. The ease of processing of PC-ABS materials allows the NAO robot to achieve complex exterior design, while its high mechanical strength and impact resistance ensure that the robot can withstand certain collisions and falls in daily use without being easily damaged. In addition, PC-ABS materials have excellent molding properties, which can efficiently produce high-precision shell parts through processing technologies such as injection molding, reducing production costs and improving production efficiency.

In the field of bionic skin and joint cushioning parts, thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) have shown unique advantages, becoming a key material for achieving robot flexibility and natural motion. TPE combines the elasticity of rubber and the processability of plastic, with features such as softness, wear resistance, and impact resistance. In the application of bionic skin, TPE can simulate the touch and appearance of human skin, making the robot more natural and comfortable when in contact with humans. Its good insulation and lightweight characteristics not only ensure the safe operation of the robot but also reduce the overall weight of the robot.

At the same time, TPE has a unique soft and bouncy meaty feel and temperature-sensitive properties, which can make humans feel a more realistic touch when touching robots. In joint buffer parts, the elasticity and deformability of TPE can play a good role in cushioning and shock absorption. When the robot's joints move, the TPE material can reduce friction and wear between joints, reduce mechanical noise, and extend the service life of joints. Moreover, the existence of TPE makes the robot's movements more flexible, natural, and smooth, closer to human movement patterns.

Although TPE is currently limited in its application for robotic exterior skins due to cost constraints, its potential for widespread use is vast as technology continues to advance and costs decrease. For instance, the future Atlas robot is expected to utilize TPE materials in its flexible joints, further enhancing its motion performance and human-robot interaction experience.

In the field of humanoid robot shells and bionic skins, PA, PC-ABS, and TPE materials each play a unique role. Their applications not only enhance the safety, comfort, and diversity of appearance design of robots but also provide important support for humanoid robots to achieve more natural and flexible movements and human-machine interactions, promoting the application and development of humanoid robots in closely related fields such as family services and medical care.

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