3D Printing of Robotic Soft Grippers: Toward Smart Actuation and Sensing

Abstract

Unlike traditional hard grippers, soft robotic grippers are commonly made of soft materials so that the soft grippers can produce motion via elastic deformations of their compliant components. The advantages of compliance allow soft grippers to effectively eliminate shocks caused by hard contact, which usually occurs when a hard robotic gripper manipulates a hard object. Until now, the soft robotic grippers are able to operate numerous objects with irregular geometries and different textures. Besides, with the help of embedded sensors, soft robotic grippers have facilitated the growing automation of many tasks, which are thought to be far too delicate for robotic manipulation. This paper reviews the advancement in soft robotic grippers. The paper first introduces the actuation technologies followed by the design and fabrication techniques. The use of 3D printing techniques in the fabrication of the soft gripper is also discussed. The Review then highlights the challenges and future outlook in the fabrication of soft grippers and sensors.

A Palm-Shape Variable-Stiffness Gripper Based on 3D-Printed Fabric Jamming

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Hangprinter for large scale additive manufacturing using fused particle fabrication with recycled plastic and continuous feeding

“…As the FGF/FPF hangprinter has been demonstrated there are many applications in the industrial environment that may be built upon AM success in several domains including aerospace [114] , robotics [115] biomedical applications [116] . At first the use of low-resolution plastic 3-D printing may not be obviously appropriate for such applications, however, there are several opportunities to make large bulk parts that do not need high-degrees of resolution.…”

Design and Development of Instrumented Toys for Social Interactive Assessment of Infant Cognitive Flexibility

“…Modern 3D printing technologies and advances in material science have enabled the fabrication of complex structures using materials of varying rigidity [45][46][47][48]. Ansys SpaceClaim's Faceted Shell and Infill tool was used to design an octahedral lattice that minimises mass, ensures uniform stiffness, and avoids needing a support structure during fabrication.…”