The Milli-Motein: A self-folding chain of programmable matter with a one centimeter module pitch

Knaian, Ara N.; Cheung, Kenneth C.; Lobovsky, Maxim B.; Oines, Asa J.; Schmidt-Neilsen, Peter; Gershenfeld, Neil

doi:10.1109/iros.2012.6385904

Cited by 35 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…4,5 Self-folding origami techniques 6 can automate the folding process of lightweight structures. The reconfigurable modular robot 7 and programmable structures 8,9 are also approaches that can potentially provide a customized robotic system with minimum assembly processes. New fabrication techniques have been developed for printable components such as instant circuits, 10 printable batteries, 11 and printable optics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pouch Motors: Printable Soft Actuators Integrated with Computational Design

et al. 2015

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We propose pouch motors, a new family of printable soft actuators integrated with computational design. The pouch motor consists of one or more inflatable gas-tight bladders made of sheet materials. This printable actuator is designed and fabricated in a planar fashion. It allows both easy prototyping and mass fabrication of affordable robotic systems. We provide theoretical models of the actuators compared with the experimental data. The measured maximum stroke and tension of the linear pouch motor are up to 28% and 100 N, respectively. The measured maximum range of motion and torque of the angular pouch motor are up to 80°and 0.2 N, respectively. We also develop an algorithm that automatically generates the patterns of the pouches and their fluidic channels. A custom-built fabrication machine streamlines the automated process from design to fabrication. We demonstrate a computer-generated life-sized hand that can hold a foam ball and perform gestures with 12 pouch motors, which can be fabricated in 15 min.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pouch Motors: Printable Soft Actuators Integrated with Computational Design

et al. 2015

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“…In order to illustrate the advantages of our system composed of cells with non-uniform softness settings, we also run the algorithm with uniform softness settings (which is the case in state-of-the-art systems [6][7][8][9][10]). This result is also plotted in Figure 4(b).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, this work was extended to three dimensions, along with algorithms to approximate any three dimensional shape [7]. Inspired by this work, Knaien et al [8] developed a system called "MilliMoteins" that consisted of a chain of electropermanent magnetic motors that could dynamically fold into different configurations. In another work [9], it was shown that serially connected soft cubes could selfassemble into a previously designed 3-D shape by being stretched by an external tension.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Programmable Self-assembly with Chained Soft Cells: An Algorithm to Fold into 2-D Shapes

Germann¹,

Auerbach²,

Floreano³

2014

From Animals to Animats 13

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Abstract. Programmable self-assembly of chained modules holds potential for the automatic shape formation of morphologically adapted robots. However, current systems are limited to modules of uniform rigidity, which restricts the range of obtainable morphologies and thus the functionalities of the system. To address these challenges, we previously introduced "soft cells" as modules that can obtain different mechanical softness pre-setting. We showed that such a system can obtain a higher diversity of morphologies compared to state-of-the-art systems and we illustrated the system's potential by demonstrating the self-assembly of complex morphologies. In this paper, we extend our previous work and present an automatic method that exploits our system's capabilities in order to find a linear chain of soft cells that self-folds into a target 2-D shape.

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“…Selfassembling modular robots [23][24][25][26] can achieve the same function by injecting each module into a workspace one by one and then assembling themselves into a desired shape. However, most self-folding and self-assembling robots require onboard power and controller for their final configuration, 19,20,25 making them unavailable at microscale. For those that no onboard power and controller are required, their self-assembly usually depends on their response to the change in physical conditions such as tempeature 26 or magnetic field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymer filament–based in situ microrobot fabrication using magnetic guidance

Diller

2016

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems

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In this article, we present a new three-dimensional printing inspired method for in situ fabrication of mobile magnetic microrobots with complex topology by bending a polymer filament on demand directly inside an enclosed operational environment. Compared with current microrobot fabrication methods that typically involve multiple microfabrication steps and complex equipment, the proposed method is simply and fast. The target shape is formed as the filament is fed through a hot needle inserted into the workspace, and the filament bending moment is induced by attaching a tip magnet at the end of the filament and projecting magnetic fields wirelessly from external electromagnetic coils. The filament bending mechanics and the behavior of the bending zone are analyzed and verified through bending experiment. A shape planner is developed for automatically controlling the fabrication process of any desired planar shapes, and the shape creation potential of this method is also studied. Magnetically active millimeter-scale robotic devices of different planar shapes are fabricated using polylactic acid filament with diameter as small as 100 m. As demonstrations of the in situ formation of functional microrobotic devices, a micro-gripper is fabricated and controlled to assemble a cell cage. A micro-spring is created as a manipulating tool with force sensing capability. We, thus, show the utility of the fabrication method for creating complex microrobot shapes remotely in enclosed environments for advanced microrobotic applications, with the potential for scaled down applications in health care and microfluidics.

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The Milli-Motein: A self-folding chain of programmable matter with a one centimeter module pitch

Cited by 35 publications

References 16 publications

Pouch Motors: Printable Soft Actuators Integrated with Computational Design

Pouch Motors: Printable Soft Actuators Integrated with Computational Design

Programmable Self-assembly with Chained Soft Cells: An Algorithm to Fold into 2-D Shapes

Polymer filament–based in situ microrobot fabrication using magnetic guidance

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