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Existing fluidic soft logic gates for controlling soft robots typically depend on labor-intensive manual fabrication or costly printing methods. In our research, we utilize Fused Deposition Modeling to create fully 3D-printed fluidic logic gates, fabricating a valve from thermoplastic polyurethane. We investigate the 3D printing of tubing and introduce a novel extrusion nozzle for tubing production. Our approach significantly reduces the production time for soft fluidic valves from 27 hours using replica molding to 3 hours with FDM printing. We apply our 3D-printed valve to develop optimized XOR gates and D-latch circuits, presenting a rapid and cost- effective fabrication method for fluidic logic gates that aims to make fluidic circuitry more accessible to the soft robotics community.
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This content will become publicly available on August 29, 2025
Soft Robotics: If You Can Dream It, Can You Print It?
You can print anything... or can you? 3D printing is an exciting new technology that promises to very quickly create anything people can design. Scientists who want to make soft robots, like Baymax from Big Hero 6TM, are excited about 3D printers. Our team uses 3D printing to make molds to produce soft robots. Molding is like using a muffin tin to make cupcakes. But can you make anything with 3D printing or are there times when 3D-printed molds do not work? Just like a cupcake liner, 3D-printed molds leave ridges, like a Ruffles potato chip, in soft robots. These ridges are a weak point where cracks can form, causing the robot to pop like a balloon. To prevent this, we sometimes need to make our robots using very smooth molds made from metal. This article talks about when and how 3D printing is useful in making soft robots.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1935312
- PAR ID:
- 10563072
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers for Young Minds
- Volume:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 2296-6846
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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