Mechanical Characterization and Constitutive Modeling of 3D Printable Soft Materials

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Materials Science
• Computational Mechanics

Background:

• Soft robotics is advancing, with a need for better material models for human/machine cooperative design.
• Current limitations in soft matter material models necessitate individual mechanical characterization for new materials.
• Developing predictive models for soft materials is crucial for the next frontier of soft robotics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide comprehensive mechanical characterization of 14 distinct 3D-printable soft materials.
• To make characterization procedures, raw data, constitutive model coefficients, and fitting code publicly available.
• To facilitate the development and application of soft materials in soft robotic systems.

Main Methods:

• Mechanical characterization of 14 soft materials using standardized testing procedures.
• Development and fitting of constitutive models to experimental data.
• Data curation and code preparation for public dissemination.

Main Results:

• Detailed mechanical property data for 14 3D-printable soft materials.
• Validated constitutive model coefficients for each material.
• A publicly accessible repository (www.SoRoForge.com) containing all data and code.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a valuable, open-access resource for the soft robotics community.
• The characterized materials and models can accelerate the design and fabrication of soft robots.
• Availability of data and models promotes reproducibility and further research in soft matter mechanics.