Ultrafast, Miniature Soft Actuators (Talk)
- Prof. Dietmar Hutmacher (Professor)
- Max Planck Queensland Centre (MPQC) for the Materials Science of Extracellular Matrices
The quest for an advanced soft robotic actuator technology that is fast and can execute a wide range of application-specific tasks at multiple length scales is still ongoing. Here, we demonstrate a new design and manufacturing strategy that leads to high-speed inflatable actuators exhibiting diverse movements. Our approach leverages the concept of miniaturisation to reduce the required volume of fluid for actuation as well as fibre-reinforcement to improve the efficiency of actuators in converting delivered fluids into fast and predictable movement. To fabricate the designs, we employ a class of additive manufacturing technology called melt electrowriting. We demonstrate 3D printing of microfibre architectures on soft elastomers with precision at unprecedently small length scales, leading to miniaturised composite actuators with highly controlled deformation characteristics. We show that owing to their small dimensions and deterministically designed fibrous networks, our actuators require extremely low amounts of fluid to inflate. We demonstrate that actuators with a length of 10 to 15mm and an inner diameter 1mm can reach their full range of motion within ~20ms without exploiting snapping instabilities or material non-linearities. We display the speed of our actuators by building an ultrafast, soft flycatcher. We also show that our actuators outperform their counterparts with respect to achievable movement diversity and complexity.
Biography: Distinguished Professor Dietmar W Hutmacher is a biomedical engineer, an educator, an inventor, and a creator of new intellectual property opportunities. He is committed to fostering transformative research and pedagogical innovation as well as programs that create an entrepreneurial mindset amongst faculty and students. He co-directs with Peter Fratzl from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam the Max Planck Queensland Centre (MPQC) for the Materials Science of Extracellular Matrices. This is the first Max Planck Centre awarded in Australia. D/Prof Hutmacher is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of biomaterials, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine with expertise in commercialization. He has translated a bone tissue engineering concept from the laboratory through to clinical application involving in vitro experiments, preclinical studies, and ultimately clinical trials. His research efforts resulted in traditional scientific/academic outputs as well as pivotal commercialisation outcomes. His pre-eminent international standing and impact on the field are illustrated by being a highly cited researcher (google scholar more than >68,000 citations, h-index of 123).
