Start Date
9-5-2019 1:15 PM
End Date
9-5-2019 2:45 PM
Document Type
Event
Keywords
Soft Robotics, Additive Manufacturing (AM), Internal Geometries, Robotic Crawlers, Single Piece Design
Description
Soft Robotics has drawn the attention of the academic community in the last decade. Control of complex soft bodies with electronic components has been a major challenge. Currently, main industrial implementations of Soft Robotics are grippers, in which they are incorporated into industrial robotic arms to grab, lift, or move fragile items such as live animals, produce, or sharp items. Harvard’s Multigait robot was designed to crawl when actuated with air. This robot incorporates a two-part casted design, controlling each of the five parts of the robot by multiple actuation tubes. In this study, a highly customizable soft robot was created with internal geometric variations, as shown in figures 23, 24, and 25. The molds of the body were manufactured by using additive manufacturing methods. This robot has a single piece casted design that consists of four legs. The internal cavity was designed inversely through a 3-D printed inner insert, as shown in figures 3 and 5. These alterable inserts were housed as part of a complete two-part 3-D printed mold. The robot was casted out of silicone, as shown in figures 12 and 13. The internal geometry of the body with cavities created the desired body motions, which was accomplished previously with external geometry variations. This two-part mold created a robot with an overall height, width, and length of 16.12 mm by 36.78 mm by 81.39 mm, respectively. This prototype contained an internal cavity of customizable design that is a uniform frame of 2.5 mm by 4.5 mm in height and width which consisted of 28, 3 mm ridges, as shown in figures 17 to 21. When actuated through its single port, single tube, design, this standard robot successfully made a downward deflection of 15 mm and an angle of deflection to be 26° from an input of 20 ml of air, as shown in figure 27. Altering the inner insert’s design, as intended, to reduce the number of rigids from 28 to 16, created a robot with a downward deflection of 22 mm and an angle of deflection to be 33° from an input of 20 ml of air, as shown in figure 28. The developed soft robot proved that the desired motions of a soft body could be created with a well-designed internal geometry.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5038/ZAOH1298
Implementation of Customizable Inner Geometries in Soft Robotics Using Additive Manufacturing
Soft Robotics has drawn the attention of the academic community in the last decade. Control of complex soft bodies with electronic components has been a major challenge. Currently, main industrial implementations of Soft Robotics are grippers, in which they are incorporated into industrial robotic arms to grab, lift, or move fragile items such as live animals, produce, or sharp items. Harvard’s Multigait robot was designed to crawl when actuated with air. This robot incorporates a two-part casted design, controlling each of the five parts of the robot by multiple actuation tubes. In this study, a highly customizable soft robot was created with internal geometric variations, as shown in figures 23, 24, and 25. The molds of the body were manufactured by using additive manufacturing methods. This robot has a single piece casted design that consists of four legs. The internal cavity was designed inversely through a 3-D printed inner insert, as shown in figures 3 and 5. These alterable inserts were housed as part of a complete two-part 3-D printed mold. The robot was casted out of silicone, as shown in figures 12 and 13. The internal geometry of the body with cavities created the desired body motions, which was accomplished previously with external geometry variations. This two-part mold created a robot with an overall height, width, and length of 16.12 mm by 36.78 mm by 81.39 mm, respectively. This prototype contained an internal cavity of customizable design that is a uniform frame of 2.5 mm by 4.5 mm in height and width which consisted of 28, 3 mm ridges, as shown in figures 17 to 21. When actuated through its single port, single tube, design, this standard robot successfully made a downward deflection of 15 mm and an angle of deflection to be 26° from an input of 20 ml of air, as shown in figure 27. Altering the inner insert’s design, as intended, to reduce the number of rigids from 28 to 16, created a robot with a downward deflection of 22 mm and an angle of deflection to be 33° from an input of 20 ml of air, as shown in figure 28. The developed soft robot proved that the desired motions of a soft body could be created with a well-designed internal geometry.