John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Pierce Hall Rm 211, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Department of Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, MS:SOE3, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA.
Adv Mater. 2018 Apr;30(15):e1706383. doi: 10.1002/adma.201706383. Epub 2018 Feb 27.
Humans possess manual dexterity, motor skills, and other physical abilities that rely on feedback provided by the somatosensory system. Herein, a method is reported for creating soft somatosensitive actuators (SSAs) via embedded 3D printing, which are innervated with multiple conductive features that simultaneously enable haptic, proprioceptive, and thermoceptive sensing. This novel manufacturing approach enables the seamless integration of multiple ionically conductive and fluidic features within elastomeric matrices to produce SSAs with the desired bioinspired sensing and actuation capabilities. Each printed sensor is composed of an ionically conductive gel that exhibits both long-term stability and hysteresis-free performance. As an exemplar, multiple SSAs are combined into a soft robotic gripper that provides proprioceptive and haptic feedback via embedded curvature, inflation, and contact sensors, including deep and fine touch contact sensors. The multimaterial manufacturing platform enables complex sensing motifs to be easily integrated into soft actuating systems, which is a necessary step toward closed-loop feedback control of soft robots, machines, and haptic devices.
人类具有手巧、运动技能和其他依赖躯体感觉系统提供反馈的身体能力。在此，报告了一种通过嵌入式 3D 打印创建软躯体感觉执行器（SSA）的方法，该方法具有多个导电特征，可同时实现触觉、本体感觉和热感觉感知。这种新颖的制造方法能够在弹性体基质内无缝集成多种离子导电和流体特征，从而生产出具有所需仿生传感和致动能力的 SSA。每个打印传感器由具有长期稳定性和无滞后性能的离子导电凝胶组成。作为一个示例，多个 SSA 结合到一个软体机器人夹爪中，通过嵌入的曲率、充气和接触传感器（包括深度和精细触觉接触传感器）提供本体感觉和触觉反馈。多材料制造平台能够轻松地将复杂的传感图案集成到软体致动系统中，这是实现软体机器人、机器和触觉设备的闭环反馈控制的必要步骤。
