Assembly-free fabrication of the deformable system composed by continuous fiber embedded 4D printing actuators

Abstract

The 4D printed deformable actuator with embedded continuous fibers exhibits the advantages of convenient direct drive without environment stimulate and flexible control response position or response time. Rapid manufacturing of complex systems consisting of multiple actuators spatial arrangements relies on multi-axis printing strategy. However, existing multi-axis printing methods cannot match the continuous fibers 4D printing predefined design feature, such as the layer distribution and fiber arrangement. Therefore, a novel assembly-free printing method is proposed to print complex 4D printed deformable system with embedded continuous fibers. Based on design features of multi-actuators deformable system, a toolpath planning algorithm is provided to analyze the printing steps of the complex structure and generate toolpaths. Herein, the effect of different nozzle tilt angles on the deformation performance during the printing process is investigated, and the corresponding compensatory strategy is proposed during toolpath generation. After discussing the advantages of assembly free printing, a deformable ratchet and an intelligent five-finger gripper are printed to demonstrate the practicality of the proposed method. The presented method exhibited unique capability in fabricating deformable system with complex 3D geometry or complex drive features for various promising applications on smart robot and metamaterial.