By Newswise An interdisciplinary group of scientists and engineers from the
University of Minnesota Twin Cities has created a first-of-its-kind
extrusion method that permits the development of synthetic materials. The
new strategy will enable researchers to create better soft robots that can
traverse challenging terrain, hard-to-reach locations, and maybe areas
within the human body.
The study was released in the peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, high-impact
publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United
States of America (PNAS).
Chris Ellison, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and one of the
paper's primary authors, stated, "This is the first time these principles
have been fundamentally proved." The competitiveness of our nation and the
introduction of new products to the public depend heavily on the development
of innovative manufacturing techniques. The usage of robots in hazardous and
distant locations is growing, and these are the types of places where this
work might have an impact.
In the growing discipline of "soft robotics," flexible, soft materials are
used to create robots rather than rigid ones. Soft growing robots have the
ability to generate new material and "grow" while moving. These devices may
be employed for tasks that people can't perform in remote locations, such
constructing or checking tubes below earth or travelling inside the human
body for biomedical uses.
Similar to how a 3D printer is fed solid filament to make its shaped
result, current soft growing robots drag a trail of solid material behind
them and can utilize heat and/or pressure to turn that material into a more
durable structure. However, it becomes increasingly challenging to draw the
solid material track around bends and curves, making it challenging for the
robots to go across terrain with obstacles or twisting roads.
By creating a novel method of extrusion, a procedure where material is
forced through an aperture to produce a specified form, the University of
Minnesota team was able to tackle this issue. The robot can produce its
synthetic material from a liquid rather than a solid thanks to this novel
method.
Matthew Hausladen, the paper's first author and a Ph.D. candidate in the
University of Minnesota Twin Cities Department of Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science, said, "We were particularly impressed by how plants and
fungus develop. "We converted that into an engineering system, using the
premise that plants and fungi add material at the end of their bodies,
either at their root tips or at their new shoots."
Water is used by plants to carry the building pieces that eventually
solidify into roots as they spread outward. Using a method called
photopolymerization, which turns liquid monomers into solid materials using
light, the researchers were able to replicate this process with synthetic
material. With the aid of this innovation, the soft robot will be able to go
through tight spaces and around curves without having to pull anything heavy
behind it.
There are uses for this innovative procedure in production as well.
Operations that need heat, pressure, and expensive gear to produce and shape
materials might not be necessary because the researchers' process merely
requires liquid and light.
The involvement of material scientists, chemical engineers, and robotic
engineers is "a really crucial aspect of this effort," according to Ellison.
"We definitely offered something new to this project by combining all of our
various abilities, and I'm sure that none of us could have completed it on
our own. This is a fantastic illustration of how scientific collaboration
allows researchers to tackle extremely challenging basic issues while
simultaneously having an influence on technology.
The National Science Foundation provided funding for the study.
Researchers Boran Zhao (postdoctoral researcher) and Lorraine Francis
(College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professor) of the
University of Minnesota's Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials
Science, as well as Tim Kowalewski (associate professor) and Matthew Kubala
of the University of Minnesota's Department of Mechanical Engineering, were
also members of the research team (graduate student).
