Desktop Printing of Soft Robots with Integrated Fluidic Control Circuits

具有集成流体控制电路的软体机器人的桌面打印

• 批准号: 2331917
• 负责人: Michael Tolley
• 金额: $ 49.94万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2331917&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Desktop; Printing; Soft; Robots; Integrated

Soft bodied robots have promising applications including dexterous manipulation, locomotion in complex environments, and safe interaction with humans. However, the control of soft robots has typically required complicated components such as pumps, valves, and electronics making them difficult and expensive to manufacture and recycle. This award supports research to understand how to print soft robots (including their body, actuators, and control circuitry) in one piece out of a single material, using commercially available desktop 3D printers. A key innovation is to control the robots with embedded circuits that run on compressed gas rather than electricity, with soft 3D printed components acting as transistors, sensors, etc. The knowledge gained through this work will advance the science of robotics by providing a new approach to the manufacture of robots that can be printed all at once on consumer grade hardware and can go into operation immediately. The research will advance national health, prosperity, and welfare by enabling the rapid development of inexpensive soft robotic devices tailored to real-world applications, including for education, environmental monitoring, medical devices, and space exploration. The outcomes could further lead to future robots that are fully recyclable or biodegradable. This award will also provide opportunities to educate and train graduate and undergraduate students in multidisciplinary research incorporating robotics, fluid mechanics, and materials science, as well as opportunities for STEM outreach to K-12 students, with a focus on including students who are members of the underrepresented groups.The fabrication of soft robots has previously required complex fabrication processes, exotic materials, or both. This research aims to achieve monolithically printed functional soft robots with embedded fluidic control circuits using popular desktop extrusion (fused filament) 3D printing from commercially available soft materials (thermoplastic polyurethanes). Using a pressurized gas as an energy source for both actuation and computation, this work will eliminate the need for assembly or multi-material 3D printing. Component stiffness will be tuned by varying geometry. An open-source design tool will encode design rules for achieving functional pneumatic components with extrusion printing. This will be followed by an investigation of the underlying physics connecting design parameters to the performance of a fundamental set of 3D printed pneumatic components. This experience will be subsequently used to print integrated pneumatic components required for the control of soft robots. Finally, the cumulative knowledge will enable the monolithic 3D printing of functional, agile soft robots with embedded sensors and feedback control circuits.This project is supported by the cross-directorate Foundational Research in Robotics program, jointly managed and funded by the Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

软体机器人具有广阔的应用前景，包括灵巧操纵、复杂环境中的运动以及与人类的安全交互。然而，软机器人的控制通常需要复杂的组件，例如泵、阀门和电子设备，这使得它们的制造和回收变得困难且昂贵。该奖项支持研究如何使用商用桌面 3D 打印机用单一材料打印出软机器人（包括其身体、执行器和控制电路）。一项关键的创新是通过嵌入式电路控制机器人，这些电路依靠压缩气体而不是电力运行，软 3D 打印组件充当晶体管、传感器等。通过这项工作获得的知识将通过提供一种新方法来推进机器人科学的发展到制造可以在消费级硬件上一次性打印并立即投入运行的机器人。该研究将通过快速开发适合现实世界应用（包括教育、环境监测、医疗设备和太空探索）的廉价软机器人设备来促进国民健康、繁荣和福利。研究结果可能进一步导致未来机器人完全可回收或可生物降解。该奖项还将提供教育和培训研究生和本科生进行机器人学、流体力学和材料科学等多学科研究的机会，以及向 K-12 学生推广 STEM 的机会，重点是包括以下领域的学生：软机器人的制造以前需要复杂的制造工艺和/或特殊材料。本研究旨在使用流行的桌面挤出（熔丝）3D 打印技术，利用商用软材料（热塑性聚氨酯）实现具有嵌入式流体控制电路的单片打印功能软机器人。这项工作使用加压气体作为驱动和计算的能源，将消除组装或多材料 3D 打印的需要。组件的刚度将通过改变几何形状来调整。开源设计工具将对设计规则进行编码，以通过挤出印刷实现功能性气动组件。随后将研究将设计参数与一组基本 3D 打印气动元件的性能联系起来的基础物理原理。这一经验随后将用于打印控制软体机器人所需的集成气动元件。最后，积累的知识将使具有嵌入式传感器和反馈控制电路的功能性敏捷软机器人的整体 3D 打印成为可能。该项目得到了机器人学跨部门基础研究计划的支持，由工程局 ( ENG）和计算机与信息科学与工程（CISE）。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。