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Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a promising solution for handling the complexity of fabricating soft robots. However, the AM of hyperelastic materials is still challenging with a limited material range. Within this work, pellet-based 3D…
Polymer syntactic foams are transforming materials that will shape the future of next-generation aerospace and marine structures. When manufactured using traditional processes, like compression molding, syntactic foams consist of a solid…
Entangled networks are fundamental in various systems, from biological structures to engineered materials. Current techniques for programming entanglement often rely on intricate chemistry or result in statistically homogeneous networks,…
High-aspect-ratio polymer materials are widely utilized in applications ranging from everyday materials such as clothing to specialized equipment in industrial and medical fields. Traditional fabrication methods, such as extrusion and…
The goal of this paper is to enable 3D printed lightweight composite foams by blending hollow glass micro balloons (GMB) with high density polyethylene (HDPE). To that end, lightweight feedstock for printing syntactic foam composites is…
The system design and algorithm development of mobile 3D printing robots need a realistic simulation. They require a mobile robot simulation platform to interoperate with a physics-based material simulation for handling interactions between…
3D printing has enabled various applications using different forms of materials, such as filaments, sheets, and inks. Typically, during 3D printing, feedstocks are transformed into discrete building blocks and placed or deposited in a…
Additive manufacturing, such as 3D printing, offers unparalleled opportunities for rapid prototyping of complex three-dimensional objects, but typically requires simultaneous building of solid supports to minimize deformation and ensure…
Vacuum-forming is a common manufacturing technique for constructing thin plastic shell products by pressing heated plastic sheets onto a mold using atmospheric pressure. Vacuum-forming is ubiquitous in packaging and casing products in…
New additive manufacturing methods are needed to realize more complex soft robots. One example is soft fluidic robotics, which exploits fluidic power and stiffness gradients. Porous structures are an interesting type for this approach, as…
This work explores a spatial printing method to fabricate continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPCs), which can achieve exceptional mechanical performance. For models giving complex 3D stress distribution under loads,…
Syntactic foams have found widespread usage in various applications including, marine, aerospace, automotive, pipe insulation, electrical cable sheathing, and shoe insoles. However, syntactic foams are often exposed to moisture when used in…
Additive manufacturing of polymer bonded magnets is a recently developed technique, for single-unit production, and for structures that have been impossible to manufacture previously. Also new possibilities to create a specific stray field…
Vertebrate animals benefit from a combination of rigidity for structural support and softness for adaptation. Similarly, integrating rigidity and softness can enhance the versatility of soft robotics. However, the challenges associated with…
A new method is presented to manufacture piezoresistive tactile sensors using fused deposition modelling (FDM)printing technology with two different filaments made of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polylactic acid-graphene (PLA-G)…
Conventional soft pneumatic actuators, typically based on hollow elastomeric chambers, often suffer from small structural support and require costly geometry-specific redesigns for multimodal functionality. Porous materials such as foam,…
Pneumatic soft robots are typically fabricated by molding, a manual fabrication process that requires skilled labor. Additive manufacturing has the potential to break this limitation and speed up the fabrication process but struggles with…
This article introduces an experimental emulation of a novel chunk-based flexible multi-DoF aerial 3D printing framework. The experimental demonstration of the overall autonomy focuses on precise motion planning and task allocation for a…
Foam is a canonical example of disordered soft matter where local force balance leads to the competition of many metastable configurations. Here we present an experimental and theoretical framework for "active foam" where an individual…
Natural filaments, such as proteins, plant tendrils, octopus tentacles, and elephant trunks, can transform into arbitrary three-dimensional shapes that carry out vital functions. Their shape-morphing behavior arises from intricate…