Multimaterial 3D Printing for Microrobotic Mechanisms

Soreni-Harari, Michal; Pierre, Ryan St.; McCue, Caroline; Moreno, Kevin; Bergbreiter, Sarah

doi:10.1089/soro.2018.0147

Cited by 46 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Future effort will be focused on improving the fabrication process by incorporating additional steps, such as the deposition of a sacrificial layer on the substrate before 3D printing to fully release the device after fabrication [27], [42], multi-material 3D printing with functional [30] or soft materials [42], and Oxygen plasma etching [24]. Combining these approaches to the fabrication process will enable us to achieve 3D microactuators and microrobots with even more capabilities and design freedom.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Two-Step Fabrication Method for 3D Printed Microactuators: Characterization and Actuated Mechanisms

Kim

Velez

Pierre

et al. 2020

J. Microelectromech. Syst.

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The fabrication and integration of microactuators with 3D micromechanisms are necessary to develop microrobots with higher capability and complexity. In this work, a twostep fabrication method combining 3D printing with two-photon polymerization (TPP) and aluminum sputtering is demonstrated. Actuators using two different transduction mechanisms (thermal and electrostatic) were fabricated in this process, and a thermal actuator was printed with a mechanism in three-dimensional space without additional assembly steps. This work also provides parameterized characterizations which can be used as design guidelines for building actuators and mechanisms. A design approach to electrically isolate the actuators from the substrate is introduced so that the device can be functional after two fabrication steps without patterning the metal layer. Metal coverage on the sidewalls of trenches are characterized, which provides a design space for deciding electrode gaps and heights in electrostatic actuators. Using these guidelines, 500 µm long thermal actuators showed a maximum displacement of 18.0 µm at 8.31mW and reliably actuated up to 8,500 cycles. An interdigitated electrostatic comb-drive actuator was also successfully demonstrated, displacing 12.7 µm when 160V was applied. Finally, a 3D actuated mechanism was designed by incorporating a thermal actuator with 3D compliant mechanisms to flap 250 µm long wings. Flapping motion was successfully demonstrated.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Two-Step Fabrication Method for 3D Printed Microactuators: Characterization and Actuated Mechanisms

Kim

Velez

Pierre

et al. 2020

J. Microelectromech. Syst.

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“…This approach, although a soft robotic device was not demonstrated, has high potential because it enabled printing of a layer composed of two different materials. Soreni-Harari et al [101] printed a multi-material microrobot in the microscale using TPP technique. The printed microrobot was composed of soft and rigid areas, using a rigid commercially available acrylate, and soft urethane diacrylate, photoresist.…”

Section: Multi-materials Printingmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printing Materials for Soft Robotics

et al. 2020

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that uses the sensor-generated information to accurately regulate and enhance the dynamic performance.Soft robots (and more in general soft material-based systems) can be built with a plethora of materials and composites having very different mechanical properties, spanning from fluids (i.e., liquid metals, etc.) and hydrogels, to stiff solids (i.e., acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), epoxy resins, etc.). Also, in most cases, the constituent materials have many degrees of freedom and are highly non-linear, with relevant hysteresis and viscoelastic behavior. Hence, modeling soft systems is a very challenging task, and it still misses a comprehensive theoretical foundation. [19] As a result, the modeling phase is often overlooked in the design process, which in most cases relies on trial and error experimentation. The most commonly used materials in the design of soft robotics are silicone-based elastomers, such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). They are used as the flexible material in pneumatic actuators, [4,5,14] in magnetic actuators, [11] and in electrically driven actuators as well, usually along with a conductive layer, commonly a carbon-based material. [15,16] Besides, other flexible polymers such as polyimides, [8] polyurethanes (PU), [12,20] or hydrogels [9] are used. So far, most devices are fabricated by casting or molding of liquid monomers, followed by hardening by UV light or heat.3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique, in which a required material is deposited, layer by layer, to form a 3D object, that is, it is a sequential 2D printing. The main advantages of 3D printing over subtractive manufacturing methods, are the simplicity of the process and the ability to form complex and hollow structures. There is a variety of 3D printing technologies that are commercially available, as described in a diversity of review reports. [21][22][23] Therefore, we will present here only a concise description of the printing technologies that are most relevant to soft robotics, all of them are based on ink compositions which are liquid during the printing processes.The most widely used methods are based on extrusion of materials, called fused deposition modeling (FDM) [24,25] and direct ink writing (DIW). [26,27] Both methods rely on a material that is extruded through a nozzle onto a substrate, and differ by the materials being used, the nozzle's nature, and the fixation mechanism. In FDM, a thermoplastic filament is extruded through a heated nozzle, followed by solidification upon cooling on the substrate, to form a solid 2D layer. This technique is simple and not expensive, but is limited to thermoplastic polymers and has relatively low resolution. In DIW, a viscous Soft robotics is a growing field of research, focusing on constructing motorless robots from highly compliant materials, some are similar to those found in living organisms. Soft robotics has a high potential for applications in various fields such as soft grippers, actuators, and biomedical devices. 3D printing of soft robotics present...

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“…1B). Although researchers have used a wide range of additive manufacturing technologies in the fields of soft robotics (29)(30)(31) and fluidic circuitry (32)(33)(34)(35)(36), we propose that PolyJet 3D printing is uniquely suitable for fabricating both classes of systems simultaneously as unified entities. PolyJet printing is an inkjetbased ("material jetting") process in which multiple photoreactive and sacrificial support materials are dispensed in parallel (with continual ultraviolet dosing) to produce 3D objects in a line-by-line, layer-by-layer manner.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fully 3D-printed soft robots with integrated fluidic circuitry

et al. 2021

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The emergence of soft robots has presented new challenges associated with controlling the underlying fluidics of such systems. Here, we introduce a strategy for additively manufacturing unified soft robots comprising fully integrated fluidic circuitry in a single print run via PolyJet three-dimensional (3D) printing. We explore the efficacy of this approach for soft robots designed to leverage novel 3D fluidic circuit elements—e.g., fluidic diodes, “normally closed” transistors, and “normally open” transistors with geometrically tunable pressure-gain functionalities—to operate in response to fluidic analogs of conventional electronic signals, including constant-flow [“direct current (DC)”], “alternating current (AC)”–inspired, and preprogrammed aperiodic (“variable current”) input conditions. By enabling fully integrated soft robotic entities (composed of soft actuators, fluidic circuitry, and body features) to be rapidly disseminated, modified on demand, and 3D-printed in a single run, the presented design and additive manufacturing strategy offers unique promise to catalyze new classes of soft robots.

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Multimaterial 3D Printing for Microrobotic Mechanisms

Cited by 46 publications

References 54 publications

A Two-Step Fabrication Method for 3D Printed Microactuators: Characterization and Actuated Mechanisms

A Two-Step Fabrication Method for 3D Printed Microactuators: Characterization and Actuated Mechanisms

3D Printing Materials for Soft Robotics

Fully 3D-printed soft robots with integrated fluidic circuitry

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