Bioinspired 3D Printable Soft Vacuum Actuators for Locomotion Robots, Grippers and Artificial Muscles

Tawk, Charbel; Panhuis, Marc in het; Spinks, Geoffrey M.; Alici, Gürsel

doi:10.1089/soro.2018.0021

Cited by 134 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…While arrays of vertical electrodes can be patterned lithographically, new masks must be generated for each device design . By contrast, 3D printing enables the rapid design and fabrication of soft materials in nearly arbitrary geometries . For example, direct ink writing (DIW), an extrusion‐based 3D printing method, has been used to pattern soft functional materials, including sensors, stretchable electronics, liquid crystalline elastomers, and soft robots .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printing of Interdigitated Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Chortos

Hajiesmaili

Morales

et al. 2019

Adv Funct Materials

140

123

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Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are soft electromechanical devices that exhibit large energy densities and fast actuation rates. They are typically produced by planar methods and, thus, expand in-plane when actuated. Here, reported is a method for fabricating 3D interdigitated DEAs that exhibit in-plane contractile actuation modes. First, a conductive elastomer ink is created with the desired rheology needed for printing high-fidelity, interdigitated electrodes. Upon curing, the electrodes are then encapsulated in a self-healing dielectric matrix composed of a plasticized, chemically crosslinked polyurethane acrylate. 3D DEA devices are fabricated with tunable mechanical properties that exhibit breakdown fields of 25 V µm −1 and actuation strains of up to 9%. As exemplars, printed are prestrainfree rotational actuators and multi-voxel DEAs with orthogonal actuation directions in large-area, out-of-plane motifs.The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201907375.cycling and breakdown behavior [33][34][35] and the presence of a rigid frame limits the geometries that can be achieved. [24,36] Recent attention has been directed toward developing approaches that enable contractile displacements in prestrain-free DEAs, including manual and automated stacking of individual planar layers [37] or sequential deposition of active materials via inkjet printing [38] and spray coating. [39] The fabrication of contractile actuators with vertically oriented electrodes offers a more promising approach (Figure 1b). While arrays of vertical electrodes can be patterned lithographically, new masks must be generated for each device design. [40][41][42] By contrast, 3D printing enables the rapid design and fabrication of soft materials in nearly arbitrary geometries. [43][44][45][46][47] For example, direct ink writing (DIW), an extrusion-based 3D printing method, has been used to pattern soft functional materials, including sensors, [48] stretchable electronics, [49] liquid crystalline elastomers, [50] and soft robots. [51,52] While this method has recently been used to print DEAs, they do not exhibit an in-plane contractile response. [52][53][54] Here, we create 3D DEAs composed of interdigitated vertical electrodes that are printed, cured, and encapsulated in an insulating dielectric matrix (Figure 1c). These prestrain-free contractile DEAs can be produced in nearly arbitrary geometries. During their actuation, the stress generated is given by σ = ε 0 ε r (E) 2 , where ε 0 is the vacuum permittivity, ε r is the dielectric constant, and E is the electric field. For small strains, the actuation strain (s z ) is s z = σ/E Y = ε 0 ε r (E) 2 /E Y , where E Y is the Young's modulus. Their actuation performance is therefore maximized by increasing the breakdown field and dielectric constant, while simultaneously reducing the elastic modulus of the matrix. Since variations in the dielectric thickness can cause localization of the electric field that results in p...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printing of Interdigitated Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Chortos

Hajiesmaili

Morales

et al. 2019

Adv Funct Materials

140

123

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“…The computer-aided-design (CAD) models were designed and modeled in Autodesk Fusion 360 (Autodesk Inc.). The CAD models were sliced using a commercially available slicer (Simplify3D LLC, OH) where the printing parameters were set and adjusted based on recent studies on 3D printing soft pneumatic actuators and sensors using FDM 3D printing [31,35]. The soft pneumatic actuators and the full soft gripper were printed along their width (W) (Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Charbel Tawk, Yuan Gao, Rahim Mutlu and Gursel Alici printing [29][30][31], multi-material 3D printing [32][33] and silicone 3D printing [34].…”

Section: Fully 3d Printed Monolithic Soft Gripper With High Conformalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finite element modeling simulations were performed on a single actuator to optimize its topology and to predict its performance in terms of deformation and blocked force. The TPU was modeled as a hyperelastic material based on its experimental stress-strain data where a 5-parameter Mooney-Rivlin material model was implemented in ANSYS [31,35]. The FEM simulations were performed in ANSYS Workbench.…”

Section: Finite Element Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fully 3D Printed Monolithic Soft Gripper with High Conformal Grasping Capability

Tawk

Gao

Mutlu

et al. 2019

2019 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM)

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The recent advances in material science and engineering disciplines have had a significant impact on the robotics field where numerous bioinspired soft robots have been developed. Roboticists can now develop and fabricate soft robotic systems made of materials with low elasticity using additive manufacturing technologies. One of the most studied classes of soft robotic systems is soft adaptive grippers. In this work, we present a novel fully 3D printed soft pneumatic gripper that incorporates a novel design of soft pneumatic chambers and a bioinspired fin-ray structure for conformal grasping. The soft gripper was printed in a single step using a low-cost and open-source fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer and a commercially available thermoplastic poly(urethane) (TPU). A soft pneumatic actuator representing each finger of the gripper was optimized using finite element modeling (FEM). The FEM simulations predicted accurately the performance of the actuator in terms of deformation and blocked force. The high conformability of the proposed soft gripper was validated experimentally. The soft gripper was demonstrated lifting a heavy load and grasping a wide variety of objects with different weights, shapes, textures and stiffnesses.

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“…Our aim is to directly 3D print soft robots with integrated actuation and sensing capabilities using low‐cost and open‐source 3D printers that use soft and flexible materials. Soft pneumatic actuators are compatible with our aim, and recently various 3D‐printable soft pneumatic actuators based on multiple additive manufacturing technologies were developed . In the present study, we introduce 3D‐printable soft pneumatic sensors to complement 3D‐printable actuation concepts based on pneumatics and other actuation methods for soft robots.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Soft Pneumatic Sensing Chambers for Generic and Interactive Human–Machine Interfaces

Tawk

Panhuis

Spinks

et al. 2019

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Soft robots are ideal to interact safely alongside humans when compared to rigid‐bodied robots. These robots require robust soft sensors that can sustain large deformations. Novel soft pneumatic sensing chambers (SPSCs) that can be directly 3D printed using a low‐cost 3D printer and an off‐the‐shelf thermoplastic poly(urethane) (TPU) are presented. The SPSCs are responsive to four main mechanical input modalities of compression, bending, torsion, and rectilinear displacement, and all of these cause a pressure change in the SPSCs. The SPSCs have several advantages including fast response, linearity, negligible hysteresis, repeatability and reliability, stability over time, long lifetime, and very low power consumption. The SPSCs are optimized using finite element modeling (FEM) simulations to obtain a linear relationship between the input mechanical modalities and the output pressure. With the hyperelastic material model developed for the TPU, the FEM simulations accurately predict the experimental behavior. These SPSCs are generic and can be tailored to diverse soft and interactive human–machine interfaces including soft wearable gloves for virtual reality applications and soft adaptive grippers control, soft push buttons for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education platforms, haptic feedback devices for rehabilitation, soft game controllers and soft throttle controllers for gaming, and soft bending sensors for soft prosthetic hands.

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Bioinspired 3D Printable Soft Vacuum Actuators for Locomotion Robots, Grippers and Artificial Muscles

Cited by 134 publications

References 47 publications

3D Printing of Interdigitated Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

3D Printing of Interdigitated Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Fully 3D Printed Monolithic Soft Gripper with High Conformal Grasping Capability

Soft Pneumatic Sensing Chambers for Generic and Interactive Human–Machine Interfaces

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