Robot Is 3D-Printed Upside-Down in One Piece, Then Walks Out of the Printer

Soft-bodied robots offer tremendous potential, but they’re often limited to small-scale, experimental production. A group of researchers from Scotland aims to change that by introducing a 3D-printed soft robot that is fabricated in a single, continuous process—and remarkably, walks off the print bed once complete.

It’s not the first instance of a one-piece printed soft robot.

The UC San Diego Hexapod

Earlier this year, researchers at UC San Diego unveiled a 3D-printed hexapod robot, produced in a 58-hour continuous print. That bot didn’t rely on motors but instead used compressed air to activate its limbs in sequence.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh also power the new quadruped design pneumatically, and they print it in just nine hours. Notably, while the UC San Diego team used a $1,000 printer, the Scottish researchers create their version using the Flex Printer, a ~$500 open-source system built from widely available components.

The researchers make both robots from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a soft and flexible material. They heat, melt, and extrude the TPU filament in layers to shape the robot’s body.

However, printing with TPU presents challenges. Due to its softness, it often bends unpredictably during extrusion—described by the team as “like pushing on a piece of string.” Additionally, gravity causes freshly extruded TPU to sag before it solidifies, making it hard to form horizontal structures properly, as the layers might not fuse.

Solving the Buckling Problem

To counteract buckling, the researchers switched to a thicker 2.85 mm TPU filament instead of the more common 1.75 mm, making the material far less likely to bend during printing.

They tackled the drooping issue by inverting the printing process. Instead of extruding material downward onto a surface, the Flex Printer extrudes it upward. The layers stick to the overhead print bed and build downward, allowing gravity to aid the bonding between layers.

After printing the robot, the researchers flip the bed to place the robot upright.

Air-Driven Movement System

The researchers connect the robot to a pneumatic ring oscillator, which sends rhythmic pulses of air at 2.25 bar (32.6 psi) through internal air channels to activate its movement. This airflow powers two actuators in each leg for side-to-side motion and another actuator in each foot to lift the leg off the surface.

While the current model is a proof of concept, the team believes this open-source platform could accelerate the development of soft robots for real-world tasks such as exploration, medical procedures, and search-and-rescue missions.

With our new platform, people can now easily print designs that were once considered unachievable,” says lead researcher Maks Gepner of the University of Edinburgh, who co-led the project with Prof. Adam A. Stokes.We have eliminated long-standing design and manufacturing barriers, and we believe that soft robotics is now ready to make a significant real-world impact.

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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