Stiffness Preprogrammable Soft Bending Pneumatic Actuators for High-Efficient, Conformal Operation

Ke, Xingxing; Jang, Jiajun; Chai, Zhiping; Yong, Haochen; Zhu, Jiaqi; Chen, Han; Guo, Chuan; Ding, Han; Wu, Zhigang

doi:10.1089/soro.2020.0207

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…However, after adding the mechanical metamaterial, a surface contact that matches the shape of the objects being grasped was achieved and therefore, enhancing the conformability (i.e., shape matching) of the gripper. In addition, conformability simplifies the complexity of actuation, manipulation, control, and sensing by leveraging the inherent physical intelligence of soft robotic systems including soft grippers (Ke et al, 2021).…”

Section: Finite Element Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 3D Printed Modular Soft Gripper Integrated With Metamaterials for Conformal Grasping

Tawk

Mutlu²,

Alıcı

2022

Front. Robot. AI

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A single universal robotic gripper with the capacity to fulfill a wide variety of gripping and grasping tasks has always been desirable. A three-dimensional (3D) printed modular soft gripper with highly conformal soft fingers that are composed of positive pressure soft pneumatic actuators along with a mechanical metamaterial was developed. The fingers of the soft gripper along with the mechanical metamaterial, which integrates a soft auxetic structure and compliant ribs, was 3D printed in a single step, without requiring support material and postprocessing, using a low-cost and open-source fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer that employs a commercially available thermoplastic poly (urethane) (TPU). The soft fingers of the gripper were optimized using finite element modeling (FEM). The FE simulations accurately predicted the behavior and performance of the fingers in terms of deformation and tip force. Also, FEM was used to predict the contact behavior of the mechanical metamaterial to prove that it highly decreases the contact pressure by increasing the contact area between the soft fingers and the grasped objects and thus proving its effectiveness in enhancing the grasping performance of the gripper. The contact pressure can be decreased by up to 8.5 times with the implementation of the mechanical metamaterial. The configuration of the highly conformal gripper can be easily modulated by changing the number of fingers attached to its base to tailor it for specific manipulation tasks. Two-dimensional (2D) and 3D grasping experiments were conducted to assess the grasping performance of the soft modular gripper and to prove that the inclusion of the metamaterial increases its conformability and reduces the out-of-plane deformations of the soft monolithic fingers upon grasping different objects and consequently, resulting in the gripper in three different configurations including two, three and four-finger configurations successfully grasping a wide variety of objects.

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Section: Finite Element Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 3D Printed Modular Soft Gripper Integrated With Metamaterials for Conformal Grasping

Tawk

Mutlu²,

Alıcı

2022

Front. Robot. AI

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“…For example, Altelbani et al [20] combined 3D-printable fPN with different bending properties in various ways for powerful structural programmability. Based on sPN, Ke et al [21] achieved pre-programmed conformal grasping by varying the thickness of the stretchable top layer corresponding to the curvature of different regions of the grasped object. We employ an fPN-based design to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.…”

Section: B Designing the Mechanical Properties Of Soft Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing out-of-plane stiffness for soft grippers

Su¹,

Tian²,

Du³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In this paper, we presented a data-driven framework to optimize the out-of-plane stiffness for soft grippers to achieve mechanical properties as hard-to-twist and easy-to-bend. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated in the design of a soft pneumatic bending actuator (SPBA). First, a new objective function is defined to quantitatively evaluate the out-of-plane stiffness as well as the bending performance. Then, sensitivity analysis is conducted on the parametric model of an SPBA design to determine the optimized design parameters with the help of Finite Element Analysis (FEA). To enable the computation of numerical optimization, a data-driven approach is employed to learn a cost function that directly represents the out-of-plane stiffness as a differentiable function of the design variables. A gradient-based method is used to maximize the out-of-plane stiffness of the SPBA while ensuring specific bending performance. The effectiveness of our method has been demonstrated in physical experiments taken on 3D-printed grippers.

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“…[11] The stiffness distribution of top layer can also be programmed for conformal operation and bio-inspired motions. [27] For soft robots suitable of accomplishing complex tasks, soft manipulators integrating both arms and grippers are often fabricated employing materials with different stiffness. [28] In summary, soft actuators using FDM, SLA, and SLS methods are mainly challenged by the limited choices of materials and capabilities in manufacturing complex 3D structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[ 11 ] The stiffness distribution of top layer can also be programmed for conformal operation and bio‐inspired motions. [ 27 ] For soft robots suitable of accomplishing complex tasks, soft manipulators integrating both arms and grippers are often fabricated employing materials with different stiffness. [ 28 ]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Freeform Fabrication of Pneumatic Soft Robots via Multi‐Material Jointed Direct Ink Writing

Wang

Boyu

Cui

et al. 2022

Macro Materials & Eng

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Pneumatically actuated soft robots have attracted significant attention in recent years due to their non-linear structures for performing biomimetic motions to enhance human-machine interactions. However, manufacturing soft robots, especially those featuring complex 3D structures, still faces significant challenges as traditional lithography-based micro/nanofabrication technologies have some limitations, such as limited material choices and layer-by-layer architectures. In this work, a facile multi-material jointed direct ink writing (MJDIW) printing method is introduced. In comparing with the traditional micro/nanofabrication and other additive manufacturing methods, the method enables truly freeform 3D printing to fabricate entirely soft actuators and robots with complex 3D structures, while integrating materials with different mechanical characteristics to expand the manufacturing capabilities of additive manufacturing methods. The material properties and printing parameters, and conducted finite element analysis (FEA) is systematically investigated to provide the general design guidelines through simulating actuator motions. Several actuators such as linear elongation and bending actuators are manufactured either by employing a single material or multiple materials with different mechanical properties. Finally, a multi-directional soft manipulator with complex internal channels is printed using different materials to illustrate the versatility of the printing methods.

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Stiffness Preprogrammable Soft Bending Pneumatic Actuators for High-Efficient, Conformal Operation

Cited by 30 publications

References 36 publications

A 3D Printed Modular Soft Gripper Integrated With Metamaterials for Conformal Grasping

A 3D Printed Modular Soft Gripper Integrated With Metamaterials for Conformal Grasping

Optimizing out-of-plane stiffness for soft grippers

Freeform Fabrication of Pneumatic Soft Robots via Multi‐Material Jointed Direct Ink Writing

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