Week 11: Soft Robotics

Status: Documented

04 Dec, 2018

This week will focus in the study of a specific field in robotics, the soft robotics. Unlike rigid robots we are mostly used to, soft bodied robots have similarities and performance characteristics similar to living organisms or the human body. Soft-robotics are based in Bio-inspired design or biomimicry and have applications in wearables, rehabilitation prosthetics, surgical robots, rescuing and others. We will focus on the fabrication of soft actuators, sensors and grippers using novel materials, artificial muscles and performative locomotion design.


Objectives | Tasks at hand


On your left you can see one of my earlier assignments experiments with Nitinol. Its an Actuator swatch from my week 9 assignment. For this week, I will be designing an exercising/yoga relaxation chair prototype which can be used for recreational purpose of doing balancing activities in different yoga poses. etc. This is just a small prototype where we can ssume that this can be folded and kept , this can be utlised in emergencies.

Me: Lets go for a Movie.
Dad: Everything after you are done finishing your documentation. Concentrate on doing that. We can wait till April.
Me:You indeed are my actual and truely caring + intelligent soft robot ;-)>

Conversation with my dad. He understands so well that its difficult to run a design firm while simultaneously undergoing courses like this due to dearth of time after the firm's working hours. Thanks dad for all the support.

Reffered Links



Development Timeline


  • 1. Design Concept

    I started by understanding the need of Soft Robotics decided to proceed with making an Evacuation chair, which can float on water as well as could be used on stairs during emergencies. Therefore, I designed what you can see on left using AutoCAD. Dont forget to keep an outlet for airflow which I forgot on my first trial :P

  • 2. Laser cutting

    So, there are two parts to this design, one is Vinyl heat transfer sheet which is not required to be laser cut and is not even recommended. Other part is baking or parchment paper which I have laser cut as per my design, I am using RD works for cutting my baking paper, where my settings are Power is 20 and speed is 100

  • 3. Settings

    After installing paper on the bed, I uploaded my file, You need to keep the chiller as well as the Exhaust fan ON before you start cutting, also the laser cutter I am using in our lab already has a safety glass to avoid contact with laser but we still recommend to wear safety goggles if you plan to give a close sneak peek.After laser cutting, the assembly began.

  • 4. Orientation

    The piece you see on the left is shows how I plan to orient my pieces, before that If you touch your Vinyl sheet you will one glossy side and one matt side before peeling, but after you peel off the transparent cover from it, you will see glossy became Matte and matte became glossy, Now I will keep the glossy side facing inside (after peeling) and matte side facing outside, now Im using Baking Paper at the base so that Vinyl doesnt stick to the ironing cloth below, then I have my Piece of Vinyl, then goes my Laser cut baking paper, well wait before you press, read next step.

  • 5. Binding them together

    So you can see in the image that i have kept another sheet of Vinyl over my pieces, actually i took a large one piece on Vinyl and folded it over the pieces. After that kept another piece of Baking paper to avoid my iron sticking to Vinyl.

  • 6. Material Preperation

    Now make sure your steam option on Iron is off then proceed ironing it for about 10-15 minutes, you nee continously move around your iron on corners too and press at points where you have joints. Here you go..

  • 7. Final output

    When kept in front of light, it clearly shows two materials pasted together and the chair is ready. This week opens lot of scope for me in design which I will pursue in future.

Tips and Tricks


Info Panel

Before Laser cutting or Vinyl cutting a Fabric, its very important to make sure, there are as less of creases as possible on the fabric. We want the fabric stretched upto a reasonable amount to lay it flat.

Warning Notes

A soft fabric is harder to circular fit. Treating it with starch to make it hard and then joining the modules to be washed post that is an effective time saving technque for such inhouse small-scale projects.

Danger Panel

Fabric is the easiest media after cardboard and vinyl/sheets to catch fire if the laser is : 1) Out of Focus; 2) Speed is too slow; 3) Power is too high; 4) Fabric is not flat.
Some fabrics (Course and dry) are prone to catch fire. Always stay alert Laser cutting.

Success Panel

The Success of Laser cutting on fabric is dependent on three factors: 1) Honeycomb bed and effective exhaust; 2) A longer focal length of the lens for more creased fabrics; 3) An effective power : speed ratio

F.A.Q.

I usually ask the Global team or myself questions relevant to the week's task.I plan to use this section to help me document for our lab's next batch of students important questions and their answers discussed during Global review/Recitation.

Q1) Is this piece Reconfigurable?

The cut parts of the lace is a part of the design as the 3d spatial arrangement of the hands and legs of the module are specifically made to slide in these sparkling ornamental pieces. If I alternatively slide odd ones in opposite direction, it gives one shape; if I rotate all those by 180, gives another shape. These modules can be seperately dyed in seperate colors too, Can be worn as a skirt as well.

Q2) Is this seamless?

I initially had a misunderstnading on what seamless means. So no, its not seamless in true sense, but I did design end pieces that help close any open modules towards the edges and if its continued throughtout, it does become Seamless.

Download Section

Print Setting File

This RD Works file contains all the required cut settings for reference.

STL File

The DXF that was Cut onto the Butter paper