One-Shot 3D-Printed Multimaterial Soft Robotic Jamming Grippers.

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering

Background:

• Soft grippers offer high performance in complex tasks via morphological computing.
• Modeling and fabricating granular jamming grippers are challenging, limiting design exploration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a simplified fabrication method for granular jamming soft grippers.
• To enable rapid prototyping and exploration of unconventional soft actuator designs.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multimaterial 3D printing for a "one shot" fabrication of entire grippers.
• Integrated membrane and granular components in a single print run.
• Employed a generate-and-test methodology facilitated by rapid prototyping.

Main Results:

• Successfully prototyped a twisting gripper for coin manipulation.
• Developed a multifunctional legged robot paw for compliant locomotion and object grasping.
• Demonstrated the ability to rapidly characterize the design space of printed jamming grippers.

Conclusions:

• The one-shot 3D printing technique significantly simplifies the creation of soft grippers.
• This approach facilitates innovation in unconventional soft actuator design.
• Enables informed exploration of new soft robotic actuator capabilities.