Highly Integrated Multi-Material Fibers for Soft Robotics.

ABSTRACT: Soft robots are envisioned as the next generation of safe biomedical devices in minimally invasive procedures. Yet, the difficulty of processing soft materials currently limits the size, aspect-ratio, manufacturing throughput, as well as, the design complexity and hence capabilities of soft robots. Multi-material thermal drawing is introduced as a material and processing platform to create soft robotic fibers imparted with multiple actuations and sensing modalities. Several thermoplastic and elastomeric material options for the fibers are presented, which all exhibit the rheological processing attributes for thermal drawing but varying mechanical properties, resulting in adaptable actuation performance. Moreover, numerous different fiber designs with intricate internal architectures, outer

SUBMITTER: Leber A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9839840 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature