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Xin Y, Zhou X, Bark H, Lee PS. The Role of 3D Printing Technologies in Soft Grippers. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2024; 36:e2307963. [PMID: 37971199 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202307963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Revised: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Abstract
Soft grippers are essential for precise and gentle handling of delicate, fragile, and easy-to-break objects, such as glassware, electronic components, food items, and biological samples, without causing any damage or deformation. This is especially important in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, food handling, and biomedical, where accuracy, safety, and preservation of the objects being handled are critical. This article reviews the use of 3D printing technologies in soft grippers, including those made of functional materials, nonfunctional materials, and those with sensors. 3D printing processes that can be used to fabricate each class of soft grippers are discussed. Available 3D printing technologies that are often used in soft grippers are primarily extrusion-based printing (fused deposition modeling and direct ink writing), jet-based printing (polymer jet), and immersion printing (stereolithography and digital light processing). The materials selected for fabricating soft grippers include thermoplastic polymers, UV-curable polymers, polymer gels, soft conductive composites, and hydrogels. It is conclude that 3D printing technologies revolutionize the way soft grippers are being fabricated, expanding their application domains and reducing the difficulties in customization, fabrication, and production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yangyang Xin
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore
- Singapore-HUJ Alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE), Smart Grippers for Soft Robotics (SGSR), Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore, 138602, Singapore
| | - Xinran Zhou
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore
- Singapore-HUJ Alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE), Smart Grippers for Soft Robotics (SGSR), Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore, 138602, Singapore
| | - Hyunwoo Bark
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore
| | - Pooi See Lee
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore
- Singapore-HUJ Alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE), Smart Grippers for Soft Robotics (SGSR), Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore, 138602, Singapore
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Finger-palm synergistic soft gripper for dynamic capture via energy harvesting and dissipation. Nat Commun 2022; 13:7700. [PMID: 36513668 PMCID: PMC9747793 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35479-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2022] [Accepted: 12/05/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Robotic grippers, inspired by human hands, show an extraordinary ability to manipulate objects of various shapes, sizes, or materials. However, capturing objects with varying kinetic energy remains challenging, regardless of the classical rigid-bodied or frontier soft-bodied grippers. Here, we demonstrate a rapid energy harvesting and dissipation mechanism for the soft grippers leveraging the finger-palm synergy. Theoretically and experimentally, this mechanism enables a soft gripper to reliably capture high-speed targets by dissipating and harvesting almost all the target's kinetic energy within 30 milliseconds. The energy harvesting and dissipating capability are adjustable and can be enhanced by inflating pressure. Additionally, the harvested energy is autonomously transferred into fingers to enhance their grasping force and reduce the response time. To highlight, the grippers we developed are integrated into a six-rotor drone and successfully capture flying objects in an outdoor experiment. These results significantly advance robotics development in achieving dynamic capture of dynamic targets.
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Zhao Z, Lu Y, Mi Y, Meng J, Cao X, Wang N. Structural Flexibility in Triboelectric Nanogenerators: A Review on the Adaptive Design for Self-Powered Systems. MICROMACHINES 2022; 13:mi13101586. [PMID: 36295939 PMCID: PMC9610431 DOI: 10.3390/mi13101586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Revised: 09/19/2022] [Accepted: 09/21/2022] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
There is an increasing need for structural flexibility in self-powered wearable electronics and other Internet of Things (IoT), where adaptable triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) play a key role in realizing the true potential of IoT by endowing the latter with self-sustainability. Thus, in this review, the topic was restricted to the adaptive design of TENGs with structural flexibility that aims to promote the sustainable operation of various smart electronics. This review begins with an emphatical discussion of the concept of flexible electronics and TENGs, and continues with the introduction of TENG-based self-powered intelligent systems while placing the emphasis on self-powered flexible intelligent devices. Self-powered healthcare sensors, e-skins, and other intelligent wearable electronics with enhanced intelligence and efficiency in practical applications due to the integration with TENGs are illustrated, along with an emphasis on the design strategy of structural flexibility of TENGs and the associated integration schemes. This review aims to cover recent achievements in the field of self-powered systems, and provides information on how flexibility or adaptability in TENGs can be adopted, their types, and why they are required in promoting advanced IoT applications with sustainability and intelligence algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zequan Zhao
- Center for Green Innovation, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Yin Lu
- Center for Green Innovation, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Yajun Mi
- Center for Green Innovation, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Jiajing Meng
- Center for Green Innovation, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Xia Cao
- Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China
- School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Ning Wang
- Center for Green Innovation, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
- Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China
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