Purdue Researchers Create Soft Robotics Users Can Customize & Make Using 3D Printing http://bit.ly/2L37jHZ Researchers have patented promising new robotics technology created through the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization, and outlined in ‘3D Architected Soft Machines with Topologically Encoded Motion.’ Authors Debkalpa Goswami, Shuai Liu, Aniket Pal, Lucas G. Silva, and Ramses V. Martinez have developed robotic devices that can be 3D printed and customized by users, depending on their needs. This technology may both surprise and fascinate users, who in the past have expected robots to make things for them—but they may not have expected to be the ones creating the robots from home or the workshop. A 3D printed robot, while not completely able to protect users, can at least communicate with them, ask basic questions, and sense movement such as a fall, acting as a more complex panic button in these cases.
Users can create their own CAD files, shaping the robot, and then designating what types of movements it will make. The researchers have created a customized algorithm that converts the data into a 3D architected soft machine (ASM). And indeed, this opens a brave new world to users everywhere as they can print the robots on virtually any 3D printer. The fabricated ASMs can mimic human locomotion, operated with tiny motors that rely on nylon to pull the limbs back and forth. The researchers state that these customized robots and their soft materials can be stretched to beyond 900 percent of their initial length.
While users can 3D print customized robotics, the actual forms created move in the realm of the 4D, responding and morphing with their own environment. The researchers state that they can perform a wide range of motion, depending on need.
You don’t have to be an engineer or a techno-geek to understand that today (which used to be that distant, faraway future) has not yielded the type of progress we expected from robotics. And while we are not being served and accompanied 24/7 by charismatic androids, significant and interesting developments have certainly been achieved—from 3D printed robots that pick up trash for us, to construction robots—and even swarms of robots doing the 3D printing work for us. The picture may be different from what we imagined, but in the end—far more spectacular. Find out more about the recent research in soft robotics here, serving as part of the university’s Giant Leaps celebration in connection with their 150th anniversary. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com. [Source / Images: Purdue University] VIDEO Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com April 24, 2019 at 12:30PM
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