For the primary time, researchers have efficiently printed a robotic hand with bones, ligaments and tendons made of various polymers utilizing a brand new laser scanning method.
3D printed in a single go: A robotic hand made from varyingly inflexible and elastic polymers. Picture credit score: ETH Zurich/Thomas Buchner
3D printing is advancing quickly, and the vary of supplies that can be utilized has expanded significantly. Whereas the know-how was beforehand restricted to fast-curing plastics, it has now been made appropriate for slow-curing plastics as nicely. These have decisive benefits as they’ve enhanced elastic properties and are extra sturdy and sturdy.
Such printed polymers are made attainable by a brand new know-how developed by researchers at ETH Zurich and a US start-up. In consequence, researchers can now 3D print advanced, extra sturdy robots from numerous high-quality supplies in a single go.
This new know-how additionally makes combining delicate, elastic, and inflexible supplies simple. The researchers can even use it to create delicate printed buildings and components with cavities as desired.
Supplies that return to their unique state
Utilizing the brand new know-how, researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded for the primary time in printing a robotic hand with bones, ligaments and tendons made of various polymers in a single go.
“We wouldn’t have been capable of make this hand with the fast-curing polyacrylates we’ve been utilizing in 3D printing up to now,” explains Thomas Buchner, a doctoral pupil within the group of ETH Zurich robotics professor Robert Katzschmann and first writer of the research.
“We’re now utilizing slow-curing thiolene polymers. These have superb elastic properties and return to their unique state a lot quicker after bending than polyacrylates.” This makes thiolene polymers preferrred for producing the elastic ligaments of the robotic hand.
As well as, the stiffness of thiolenes will be fine-tuned very nicely to fulfill the necessities of sentimental robots. “Robots made of sentimental supplies, such because the hand we developed, have benefits over typical robots made from steel. As a result of they’re delicate, there may be much less danger of harm after they work with people, and they’re higher suited to dealing with fragile items,” Katzschmann explains.
Scanning as an alternative of scraping
3D printers sometimes produce objects layer by layer: nozzles deposit a given materials in viscous kind at every level; a UV lamp then cures every layer instantly. Earlier strategies concerned a tool that scraped off floor irregularities after every curing step.
This works solely with fast-curing polyacrylates. Sluggish-curing polymers equivalent to thiolenes and epoxies would gum up the scraper.
The robotic hand is printed layer by layer utilizing polymers of various elasticity (left: schematic, proper: laptop graphics). Picture credit score: Buchner TJK et al., Nature 2023
To accommodate the usage of slow-curing polymers, the researchers developed 3D printing additional by including a 3D laser scanner that instantly checks every printed layer for any floor irregularities.
“A suggestions mechanism compensates for these irregularities when printing the subsequent layer by calculating any needed changes to the quantity of fabric to be printed in actual time and with pinpoint accuracy,” explains Wojciech Matusik, a professor on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise (MIT) within the US and co-writer of the research.
Because of this as an alternative of smoothing out uneven layers, the brand new know-how merely considers the unevenness when printing the subsequent layer.
Different examples of 3D-printing embody a legged robotic and metamaterials. The latter might be used to soak up vibrations. Picture credit score: ETH Zurich / Thomas Buchner
Inkbit, an MIT spin-off, was answerable for creating the brand new printing know-how. The ETH Zurich researchers developed a number of robotic purposes and helped optimise the printing know-how to be used with slow-curing polymers. The researchers from Switzerland and the US have now collectively revealed the know-how and their pattern purposes in Nature.
At ETH Zurich, Katzschmann’s group will use the know-how to discover additional prospects and to design much more subtle buildings and develop further purposes. Inkbit is planning to make use of the brand new know-how to supply a 3D printing service to its clients and to promote the brand new printers.
Supply: ETH Zurich
Discussion about this post