Crafting a standard method for designing customizable soft robots
In a pioneering discovery, researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design have developed an automated process for designing and fabricating customised soft robots. The study, published in Advanced Materials Technologies, has opened up new possibilities for the field of soft robotics.
The research team, led by Dr Valdivia y Alvarado, has introduced a novel method that can be applied to various types of soft robots. This approach, which leverages embedded 3D printing, is particularly suited for creating soft robots made of multiple materials or composites.
One of the key findings of the study involves a swimming autonomous robot inspired by batoids, or ray-like fish. By using topology optimisation (TO) to design bespoke structures within a set of constraints, the team was able to optimise the composite fins of the robot. This optimisation led to the robot being 50% faster than its counterpart with the traditionally casted soft fin, and the same prototype with the composite fin turned roughly 30% faster compared to the soft fin, boasting the smallest turning radius among the three robots.
Dr Valdivia y Alvarado suggests that tailoring the electrical conductivity of certain portions of the structure could be an objective in topology optimisation for creating a sensor. Additionally, customising optical, thermal, electrical, and other physico-chemical properties of soft robots is a potential interest for other applications, according to the researcher.
The study, with the DOI 10.1002/admt.202100361, highlights the team's approach for fabricating optimised multi-material soft robots as a universally applicable method for designing other robots. As soft robots have wide applications in sensing, movement, object grasping, and manipulation, this breakthrough is expected to significantly impact the field.
It's worth noting that most soft robots are still mostly fabricated through manual casting techniques. However, with the increasing use of 3D printing or additive manufacturing for fabricating soft robots, the future of the field looks promising.
Unfortunately, the search results do not provide the name of the person involved in the development of automated methods for designing and manufacturing custom soft robots at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. Nonetheless, this study represents a significant step forward in the field of soft robotics.
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