8. SOFT ROBOTICS¶

REFERENCES & INSPIRATION¶

Going into this week I had a vague understanding of what soft robotics were or could be, but i was blown away by the advancements of this field.

I knew of inflatables and that idea of soft robots aka the robot from big hero 6 - Baymax but never thought of all of the possibilities, like using heat or temperature to actuate these robots.

Credits: AISHWARYA PANTULA / JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

TOOLS¶

Vinyl Sheets
Parchment paper
3d Printer
Silicone: Ecoflex / Dragon Skin
Adafruit Flora
Soft circut / mosfet
Laser Cutter

PROCESS AND WORKFLOW¶

For this week, I made 3 prototypes:

A vinyl graffiti inflatable
A silicone logo inflatable
A siliconne graffiti inflatable

We also were able to build a circut and use our adafruit flora with a mosfet to control the inflatables with an electronic pump

VINYL¶

Arguably the easiest method to make a soft robot.

Cut your shape that you want to inflate out of parchment paper
Sandwhich between two pieces of heat transfer vinyl
Use a heat press or iron to join/melt the pieces together

SILICONE MOULD #1¶

I created this mould in Rhino and then 3d printed it using the Bambu A1

To make a silicone mould: - mix equal parts A & B - added charcoal for color - pour into mould - pour onto flat surface to create the top - let cure, and then with more silicone, glue both pieces together