Geometric Simulation for 3D-Printed Soft Robots- Juniper Publishers
Juniper Publishers- Journal of Robotics Introduction Robots fabricated by soft materials can provide higher flexibility and thus better safety while interacting with natural objects with low stiffness such as food and human beings. With the growth of three-dimensional (3D) printing, it is even possible to directly fabricate soft robots [1,2] with complex structures and multiple materials realizing highly dexterous tasks like human-interactive grasping and confined area detection [3]. However, with such increased degrees of freedom (DoF), the design of soft robots becomes a very difficult task. It can be made possible by integrating simulation into the design phase. However, the shape deformation comes from many different and complex factors including manufacturing process, material properties, actuation, etc. Especially with the limited understanding of layer-based additive process in AM, it is challenging to formulate a complete mathematical model for the simul