mLab Robotics | Soft Robots

WE ARE A ROBOTICS LAB INVENTING SOFT ACTIVE MATERIALS, BIOINSPIRED MECHANISMS, AND RAPID DIGITAL MANUFACTURING.

Using biological inspiration, we design mechanisms that are as soft as skin and muscle, then manufacture them with techniques in 3D printing, laser machining, and soft lithography. The last five decades have seen rigid robots dominate factories, but the future will be characterized by robotic devices that are physically compliant, exceptionally dynamic, and ever-present in our daily lives.

Soft Materials

We synthesize bio-derived and biodegradable elastomers with which to form soft robot bodies. Recently we have been using electrorheological fluids and liquid metal electrodes to achieve distributed valving and variable stiffness.

Soft Mechanisms

We design soft bodied robots with per-programmed shapes to enable snake-like locomotion and gentle manipulation.

Soft Manufacturing

Soft robots require new manufacturing techniques, thus, we use our own custom built 3D printers to directly fabricate soft devices.

RESEARCH VIDEOS

SOFT ROBOT | ARTIST

A soft snake robot developed at Oregon State University. The robot is made of two fiber-reinforced bending actuators that when paired together imitates the locomotion strategy of snakes. It is a fully soft, pneumatically operated robot, which makes for a unique platform to paint with. The spirit of the competition involves combining new and emerging robotic technologies with the beauty of art.

3D Silicone Printing

Additive manufacturing has a wide range of applications and addresses many challenges inherited from conventional molding techniques such as human error, multi-step fabrication, and manual handling. We present a custom 3D printer and an extrusion mechanism capable of 3D printing soft functional robots. We demonstrate that our method enables 3D printing of soft robots that can perform better, or match the performance of molded counterparts while being more reliable and robust with the usage of the same materials.

3D Liquid Metal Printing

One of the challenges to rapidly manufacturing flexible electronics is the complexity involved in printing circuitry from stretchable conductors. Eutectic gallium alloys are typically used as the conductive material. However, limited 3D printing has been demonstrated by leveraging the structural stabilization provided by the thin gallium oxide film. Vertical structures are difficult to print with a liquid metal (LM). A method is presented to alter the physical structure of the liquid metal through the incorporation of a conductive nano- or micro-nickel fillers. The resulting rheological modification of the liquid metal to a paste drastically increases the fluidic elastic modulus and yield stress, rendering it 3D printable.

Hybrid Soft Sensor

As soft robots become more ubiquitous, there is a growing need for measuring the motion of soft bodies and actuators. In rigid robotics, angles are accurately measured with attached encoders or with externally established motion capture systems. However, these are not possible for mobile soft robots. In this paper, we present a hybrid soft sensor for measuring motion. The sensor is made of a hyperelastic silicone elastomer that contains embedded microchannels filled with conductive liquid metal. It also encapsulates two rigid inertial measurement units (IMU) near the edge points of the highly elastic substrate.