A New Approach for Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing of a Sensorized Hybrid Soft Robotic Hand

Abstract

In recent years, the integration of soft and rigid robotics also known as hybrid robotics has shown significant promises in the advancement of robotic systems by providing the potential for safe and adaptive interaction while simultaneously offering high load capacity. Nonetheless, the fabrication of hybrid robotic systems is usually characterized as a complex and time-consuming process, due to its multi-step nature, necessity of manual assembly, and formidable challenge of bonding between soft and rigid materials. In this paper we present a novel bonding technique for additive manufacturing of hybrid robotic systems via FDM process. We demonstrate our technique with in a commercially available FDM 3D printer for the fabrication of a low-cost, fully 3D printed modular hybrid hand with distributed tactile sensing. Our technique shows strong bonding between TPU and PLA, with a 6-fold increase in the debonding force. The research not only demonstrates the feasibility of a simple and low-cost additive manufacturing approach for hybrid manipulators, but also lays the groundwork for future studies into the optimization of fabrication strategies for hybrid robotics.