3D Printing Opens New Possibilities for Soft Robotics

A group of U.S. scientists succeed in creating a 3D-printed, functionally graded soft robot powered by combustion. Their research, outlined in the July issue of Science, may usher in a new era of soft robotics.
The Royal Society of Chemistry reports:

The double-layered hemispheroid robot the team produced has a rigid central core, which houses a small tank holding oxygen and butane. The ignition of these gases results in the bottom layer of the robot ballooning outwards to provide the necessary propulsion to lift the device off the ground and the variable stiffness of the top layer allows it to land safely. With pneumatic legs to direct the direction of travel before lift-off, the robot can jump up to a height of 0.76m.

This innovation is making a big splash in the world of soft robotics, with Adam Stokes, a robotics expert from the University of Edinburgh commenting:

It’s a big improvement on the previous work, because they’ve managed to make this fully untethered system. It takes soft robots one step further from being in the lab to being out [of it].

Click here to read the full article from the Royal Society of Chemistry.