Additive manufacturing of functional rubber based structures for soft robot grippers

New and more advanced soft robotic applications increasingly also shift the research effort towards the development of advanced manufacturing techniques. Besides silicone casting, additive manufacturing has developed to one of the most well known and most popular manufacturing techniques for soft robots. Additive manufacturing enables the efficient manufacturing of complex geometries, such as functional infill structures. However, so far additive manufacturing of soft robots was mainly limited to 3D printing of silicone and flexible thermoplastic polymers (TPE) such as TPU. While the fabrication process for these materials is relatively easy, the material properties of rubber are superior for many soft robotic applications. However, the printing of rubber material is still an open question. In this contribution, the 3D printing of rubber based soft robots by means of a Direct-Ink-Writing (DIW) process is presented. In this context, the integration of functional structures into different rubber made soft fingers for gripping purposes is shown. These are compared to conventionally fabricated soft fingers out of silicone without infill structures. Thereby, experimental results and the chances and current limitations of this fabrication technique for soft robot grippers are discussed in detail.

Subjects

Additive manufacturing

Direct Ink Writing

EPDM

grippers

rubber

soft robots

DDC Class

540: Chemistry

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Additive manufacturing of functional rubber based structures for soft robot grippers