Dataset Information

Strategies to Control Performance of 3D-Printed, Cable-Driven Soft Polymer Actuators: From Simple Architectures to Gripper Prototype.

ABSTRACT: The following is a study of the performance of soft cable-driven polymer actuators produced by multimaterial 3D printing. We demonstrate that the mechanical response of the polymer actuator with an embedded cable can be flexibly tuned through the targeted selection of actuator architecture. Various strategies, such as the addition of discrete or periodic stiff inserts, the sectioning of the actuator, or the shifting of the cable channel are employed to demonstrate ways to achieve more controllable deformed shape during weight lifting or reduce the required actuation force. To illustrate these concepts, we design and manufacture a prototype of the soft polymer gripper, which is capable of manipulating small, delicate objects. The explored strategies can be utilized in other types of soft actuators, employing, for instance, actuation by means of electroactive polymers.

SUBMITTER: Slesarenko V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6403601 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Strategies to Control Performance of 3D-Printed, Cable-Driven Soft Polymer Actuators: From Simple Architectures to Gripper Prototype.

Slesarenko Viacheslav V Engelkemier Seiji S Galich Pavel I PI Vladimirsky Dmitry D Klein Gregory G Rudykh Stephan S

Polymers 20180801 8

The following is a study of the performance of soft cable-driven polymer actuators produced by multimaterial 3D printing. We demonstrate that the mechanical response of the polymer actuator with an embedded cable can be flexibly tuned through the targeted selection of actuator architecture. Various strategies, such as the addition of discrete or periodic stiff inserts, the sectioning of the actuator, or the shifting of the cable channel are employed to demonstrate ways to achieve more controllab ...[more]

PMID: 30960772

Similar Datasets

Project description: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.

Dataset Information

Strategies to Control Performance of 3D-Printed, Cable-Driven Soft Polymer Actuators: From Simple Architectures to Gripper Prototype.

Publications

Strategies to Control Performance of 3D-Printed, Cable-Driven Soft Polymer Actuators: From Simple Architectures to Gripper Prototype.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets