A systematic trend analysis of 3D printing techniques used in specific soft robotic elements

Abstract

A soft and compliant robotic system is a multi-disciplinary research area, which is considered one of the most rapidly emerging frontiers in the field of robotics and technological innovation due to its convenience of high flexibility and contortionist abilities to interact with humans and their physical environments. But, these days, the fabrication of soft robots is a significantly challenging, highly time consuming and laborious task. Low-cost three-dimensional printing (3DP) technology can have numerous applications in soft robotics due to its capability of creating soft actuators, stretchable sensors, and other soft electronics. Because, unlike conventional hard robots, soft robots do not rely on fluidic or pneumatic actuators. Soft robots find their application in fields where the ability to mimic and replicate the behavior of a natural living organism is crucial. Though previous reviews of 3D printing in soft robotics compared and analyzed various aspects of it, there was an absence of discussion on the degree of suitability of the manufacturing process used for the production of specific parts in a soft robotic system. In this article, we have demonstrated an analytical work based on the possible trend that makes a specific 3D printing method superior for fabricating any particular soft robotic component (sensors, actuators, soft parts, molds). The entire work has been built keeping the application aspect of 3D printing of soft robots in mind. This will provide researchers a time-efficient way to choose the optimum 3DP method based on their requirements. The authors also consider the detailed investigations of rapidly increasing research (of the past five years) on 3DP and soft robots, which will serve the purpose of this review paper.