Thesis

Image of cool soft robot

Kaits enatglement robot

؜Soft robots are really cool because they are compliant, meaning they can form around and wrap around objects more gently than a rigid robotic actuator or mechanism. This means that you don't even need to know what shape or the orientation of the object you are picking up to be gentle. Because of this, they have a lot of potential in applications where there is a lot of human-to-robot interaction, like in health or physical therapy.

add why soft robotics is good -- it can coform and cpy to objects -- they have a lto of potetial in health and humman-root interaction and handleing delicate objects

talk about soft robotic manufacturing as a growing feild and lacks a lot DFM knowlegde of soft robotic componetnts espeially actuators

Ribbon core casting is a technique for making soft robotic actuators that will make soft robotics more accessible by using a design that is optimized for and utilizes 3D printing in a novel way. This project will later become a conference paper co-authored with a lab at MIT.

؜Answer what why and how, make sure to metniontthat the goal of this is to publish a paper

who im working with...

FIDL

(Fabrication - Integrated Design Lab)

Qifan Yu

Kaitlyn Becker

PHD Candidate at MIT

؜Assistant Professor at MIT, lead of the FIDL

try to find an icon for this

make this lside look better

؜Who am I working with?

Soft Robotics Basics

Image of cool soft robot

Kaits enatglement robot

؜Soft robotics is important because they are very gentle and very simple to control due to their compliance.

Soft Robotics - Robots made from flexible materials.

Actuator - A part that creates movement.

Pneumatics - Using air pressure to create motion.

Compliance - the ability to bend or deform safely.

Strain limiting layer - Fibers or structures added to control how something stretches.

add why soft robotics is good -- it can coform and cpy to objects -- they have a lto of potetial in health and humman-root interaction and handleing delicate objects

talk about soft robotic manufacturing as a growing feild and lacks a lot DFM knowlegde of soft robotic componetnts espeially actuators

Make this a diagram of an actuator inflating

Chen, Gang & Yang, Xin & Zhang, Xujie & Hu, Huosheng. (2021). Water hydraulic soft actuators for underwater autonomous robotic systems. Applied Ocean Research. 109. 102551. 10.1016/j.apor.2021.102551.

timeline

Phase 1

؜Manifold exploration

Phase 2

؜Proof of concept for Ribbon-Core casting

Phase 3

؜Fine tuning of proscess

Phase 4

Writing paper

Now

Phase 1- Haptic Climbing wall

؜؜In the winter session one, there was a soft robotics studio that collaborated with an MIT lab. My project was a gamified climbing wall designed to be inclusive of people who are blind. After that studio, the lab we worked with at MIT liked the work we had done during the studio and wanted to do more work together. This then led to collaborating on a research paper.

include both of these images

make more of a thesis, or mabye bullet points, less "I"

Phase 2 - Proof of concept

؜The goal of phase 2 was to come up with a topic that I would base a research paper around. and then later make proof-of-concept prototypes to validate the idea. After a lot of literature review and brainstorming, we landed on an idea we were really excited about that seemed to have a lot of potential.

Explain traditional multi step casting proscess

؜How are traditional soft robotic actuators manufactured?

؜Traditional pneumatic soft robotic actuators are made using a multi-step casting process where you first cast two halves of the part, and then glue them together.

The biggest limitation of this method is that it produces parts with a seam where the two halves of the actuator were glued together. This seam is always the failure point of these types of actuators.

(Lei, J., Ge, Z., Fan, P., Zou, W., Jiang, T., & Dong, L. (2022). Design and Manufacture of a Flexible Pneumatic Soft Gripper. Applied Sciences, 12(13), 6306. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12136306)

LVC Casting and soft core casting

؜The main paper this project is building off of, introduces something called LVC. Instead of using silicone, it uses thin, low-volume cores (or LVC) made of thin plastic that are flexible enough to be pulled out of the actuator with little resistance. In addition, the low volume of the internal cavities makes it more efficient and more durable than the previous techniques

(Source: Yu, Advanced Functional Materials: Volume 34, Issue 46, 2024)

Overview of Ribbon-Core casting

؜Diagram of Ribbon casting

؜Ribbon casting is an innovation building off of LVC. Instead of using meticulously assembled polypropylene sheets, this method uses 3D printed cores that are designed to delaminate and unravel to allow for easier demolding of the actuator.

؜Ribbon casting is a technique where the 3D printed part is designed and printed as one continuous extrusion that, when enough force is applied, will peel apart, allowing the core to be pulled out of the mold. Each fin peels after the one before, in sequence. This means even when printing an actuator with a huge amount of fins, the force does not scale with the number of fins like in LVC casting. In addition, because the manufacturing of the core is so automated, it can be mass produced at a very low cost and is more accessible to anyone with a hobbist 3D printer who wants to cast soft robotic actuators, sensors, etc.

Make the core fully extend

Why is Ribbon-core casting important?

؜Benefits:

1. Low cost
2. More automated manufacturing process
3. The force required to demold it is not reliant on the length of the actuator
4. Reduced stress in the core when being demolded
5. Reduced stress concentration when the actuator is being inflated

less text

Add labels, add a summary for the key takaways and such, pros and cons/ cahllenges and progress.

؜Where did I leave off?

1. ؜Needed to make the delaminations take less force
2. The tops of the fins were under too much stress when being pulled apart
3. Not all the fins delaminated

Actuator

؜Strain limiting layer

Core

Phase 3 - Parameter Testing

The goal of phase 3 is to find a set of parameters and a geometry that works somewhat consistently. Then that set of parameters will be the basis for a more rigorous characterization.

mkae a slide that just has Phase 3 then the next lide is the description of it

Parameter Testing

Before even touching silicone, I needed to tune the distance between each side of the fin, such that when sufficient force is applied, it delaminates in the intended way.

The smaller the distance, the more force it takes, because more bonding occurs between each side.

line up of the differnt geometrys that show all the tiny and fine features that i am changes

Label with what changed and such

؜retak image so the 3 clusters are aligned better horizontlally and better images, also use a grid to make it better

Label with what changed and such

؜retak image so the 3 clusters are aligned better horizontlally and better images, also use a grid to make it better

Force graphs

Force graphs

Delam

Delam

Delam

Delam

Cast #1

؜Me slipping

Delam

Delam

Delam

Delam

Last fin pulling out

cast #1 anaylysisi

Cast #1

cast #1

Cast #3

graph (need to finsih anallysing)

Delam

Delam

Delam

Delam

؜Last fin

Cast #3

cast #1

؜This Cast was differn't than any of the others. This one has 10 fins, as opposed to the 5-fin actuators I have been making so far. This test is intended to show that this method is capable of making large actuators without the force becoming too much to successfully remove the core.

The demolding had some small issues. One is that the strain-limiting layer broke during demolding because someone (me) forgot to saturate it in silicone. The other is that the fins tore in the same fashion as the last test.

Cast #4

data

؜Delam

؜Delam

؜Delam

؜Delam

؜Delam

Cast #4

؜Here are some ideas of what geometries this method might be capable of.

cast #1

Future

؜

Need to talk to Qifan to recap what the next phase is,

have some hand sketchs of what differnt actuators and expiramental things are possible with this method.

Thank you!

Sources

Yu, Q., Cao, N., Folinus, C., & Becker, K. P. (2024). Low-Volume Cores for Fabrication of Compact, Versatile, and Intelligent Soft Systems. Advanced Functional Materials, 34(46), 2404317. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202404317

Becker, K., Teeple, C., Charles, N., Jung, Y., Baum, D., Weaver, J. C., Mahadevan, L., & Wood, R. (2022). Active entanglement enables stochastic, topological grasping. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(42), e2209819119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209819119

Chen, Gang & Yang, Xin & Zhang, Xujie & Hu, Huosheng. (2021). Water hydraulic soft actuators for underwater autonomous robotic systems. Applied Ocean Research. 109. 102551. 10.1016/j.apor.2021.102551.

Lei, J., Ge, Z., Fan, P., Zou, W., Jiang, T., & Dong, L. (2022). Design and Manufacture of a Flexible Pneumatic Soft Gripper. Applied Sciences, 12(13), 6306. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12136306