Andreas Heiden,
"Printing Sustainable Soft Robotics"
, 8-2024
Original Titel:
Printing Sustainable Soft Robotics
Sprache des Titels:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
We are now standing at the brink of a fundamental change in our technologies. Soft versions of
robotic devices are evolving rapidly in our mission to advance human-made machines towards
the excellence of living creatures. While past technological breakthroughs were prevalently
driven by rigid machines, novel soft forms excel in many tasks like conquering complex terrain
or interacting safely with biological life. The upcoming technological transformation requires
to unlock the full potential of soft machines by uniting diverse material and fabrication
approaches within a single process. Simultaneously, scientists are battling on all fronts to
find sustainable alternatives for that to conquer environmental pollution, climate change
and excessive energy consumption. Here, sophisticated multimaterial 3D printing strategies
have the potential to produce complex devices in a cost-effective and flexible way while being
able to process a broad spectrum of sustainable soft materials.
Along the journey to unite these premises, this thesis highlights the evolution of an additive
manufacturing approach, from simple volumetric extrusion of our fully bioderived and
biodegradable gelatin-based hydrogel to a pneumatically driven multimaterial printing setup,
able to fabricate sustainable complex soft robotic devices in a single process. Together with
the development of another fully biodegradable support ink based on egg albumen and
first steps to integrate additional functional materials, this lets me envision a future where
sustainably produced soft devices assist us in our everyday lives and biodegrade at the end of
their lifetime without burdening our environment.
Forschungs-