Design for Robot-Based Non-Planar Additive Manufacturing Case Study: Soft Robotics Gripper

Robot-based Non-Planar Additive Manufacturing, as a manufacturing technique, may be a candidate for the fabrication of soft robotics compliant mechanisms, owing to the increased design freedom and final part mechanical properties of these methods compared to conventional Additive Manufacturing. The non-planar slicing method applied in this work involves the bijective homomorphism between the Cartesian map and a slicing map, used for planar part design. This paper explores this novel Design for Non-Planar Additive Manufacturing technique and applies it on a case study of a Yoshimura-style origami compliant mechanism-based grasping end-effector. Three different build platforms are proposed for different to-be-grasped applications. For all three cases, the complete methodology is applied, starting from CAD model preparation, model isomorphism onto the Cartesian map, planar additive manufacturing trajectory generation and toolpath isomorphism for manufacturing. This case study showcases the possibilities of Robot-based Non-Planar Additive Manufacturing for the manufacture of improved mechanical properties soft robotics compliant mechanisms, and suggests the transversality of the methodology for other areas of knowledge, including aerospace, embedded electronics, and biomedical industries.