The development of a hybrid manufacturing system that combines multimaterial 3D-printing with silicone casting for the development of soft robotic parts

Abstract

This master thesis discusses the development of a hybrid manufacturing system that combines multi-material 3D-printing with silicone casting. The parties involved in this project were soft robotics research group at the University of Technology Delft and Ultimaker. Ultimaker served an advisory role and helped in providing the needed hardware. The starting point of this project was the lack of good production facilities for developing soft robotic parts. During an explorative study of the current production methods arose the value of a hybrid manufacturing system. By combining the material properties of hand casting with the automated process of Fused Deposition Modelling a better manufacturing system could be proposed; the MultiCast system. This thesis explores the new possibilities of such a system and tried to optimize the set-up for the development of soft robotic parts. Three applications areas have been further investigated namely: Silicone Fibre composites, Hard inserts and Complex cavities. All the findings have been combined into a demonstrator that displays the capabilities of the MultiCast system. The demonstrator is a soft robotic hand composed out of pneumatic bending actuators that are composed out of composites, hard inserts and complex cavities. The thesis ends with recommendations in regards of the further development of the MultiCast set-up.