3D Printed Personalized ‘Soft’ Robotic Hands and Hearts

Soft robots are made with highly compliant materials such as fluids, gels and polymers so they can mimic functions present in living organisms. In the last few years, there has been a significant trend toward using 3D printing for their manufacturing instead of conventional moulding and casting approaches.

Many 3D printing technologies are available. They all convert digital data into three-dimensional objects by adding successive layers of a material until the object is fabricated. The printing technologies use different types of materials and approaches for layering them. For example, researchers used ‘selective laser sintering’ of powdered metals to develop a multi-finger soft robotic hand that can lift, grip, spin and precisely position objects.

Other materials used to 3D print soft robots include dielectric elastomers: polymers that change their size and shape when stimulated by an electric field; shape memory polymers, which change their shape in response to heat; and hydrogels that are affected by a variety of stimuli including heat, electricity, acidity, magnetism and light.

Soft robots are being tested for a variety of purposes inside and outside the human body. For example, a 3D printed soft silicone pump could be used as an artificial heart. 3D printed soft ‘micro-biobots’, which can travel through blood vessels or the gut, are being researched for monitoring diseases. Outside the body, soft robots are being developed for prosthetics, for monitoring vital signs, and for organ-on-a-chip devices that can replace animals in drug testing.

But many challenges remain to improve these technologies for clinical use. The materials sometimes shrink during the solidification process, for example. Also, 3D printing is yet too slow for mass production.

The commercial success of these technologies, the researchers conclude, will depend on developing rapid prototypes that can lead to mass-production. Robots must also be inexpensive and satisfy market needs.

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Contacts and sources:
Prof. Kyung Hyun Choi
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Jeju National University, South Korea
Mikiko Tanifuji  National Institute for Materials Science

Citation: Jahan Zeb Gul, Memoon Sajid, Muhammad Muqeet Rehman, Ghayas Uddin Siddiqui, Imran Shah, Kyung-Hwan Kim, Jae-Wook Lee & Kyung Hyun Choi
3D printing for soft robotics – a reviewResearch paper
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials
https://doi.org/10.1080/14686996.2018.1431862
Published online: 8 March 2018