Electronics Design
and assistive wearable devices will include systems that are soft, elastically deformable and may adapt their functionality in unstructured environments. She explains that, “The emerging fi eld of soft robotics utilises soft active materials to address these challenges and mimic the inherent compliance of natural soft-bodied systems. As soft-matter mechanisms increase in complexity, the challenges for functionality revert to basic questions of manufacturing, materials, and design – whereas such aspects are far more developed for traditional rigid- bodied systems.”
y treating clothing as a field of engineering, it can be transformed from passive equipment to active machinery.
B Professor Rebecca Kramer, Purdue University.
For the uninitiated, Kramer is happy to put into layman’s terms exactly what the ‘soft robotics’ sector is. “To me, soft robotics is the intersection between materials, manufacturing and robotics,” she begins. “In contrast to traditional robots, which are typically made of rigid metals, circuit boards and motors, my work aims to develop autonomous machines made of all soft materials.”
When it comes to potential applications for soft robotic technologies, Kramer reels off a list that includes: search-and-rescue robots that are impact resistant and can deform to squeeze through cracks and crevices to aid in natural disasters; wearable technologies such as fabrics and skins that can give proprioceptive feedback to the wearer or assist with motions and prolong endurance without restricting the natural mechanics of motion; and human-machine interfaces
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that utilise compliance to embed safety at the material level.
“The main concept that I explore is the use of responsive systems that react automatically to changes in their environment (material intelligence), which will reduce the complexity of robots overall. As most of the materials my lab works with are new and not typically applied to these applications, we also focus on scalable manufacturing with responsive materials to make novel soft devices.”
Kramer’s presentation highlighted preliminary designs for engineered fabrics and skins that address wearable applications, providing both sensory feedback and imparting motion to the wearer. It’s logical then, to ask her where the human that will ultimately be using such technologies factors into her research. “The technology we’re developing is not at a readiness level to test with human subjects, but we envision wearables as a key application for our work. We are developing both robotic fabrics and robotic skins. Both of these ideas involve the integration of sensing and actuation within a planar, conformable substrate.
“Wearable sensing would allow a user to receive information about their own state. For the consumer sector, such information could be used to improve positioning for health or athletics and to develop gesture-based gaming platforms. Integrated actuation may be used for injury prevention or rehabilitation, enhanced strength or endurance, and soft exoskeletons/prosthetics.”
When asked about the likely early adopters and where in the market they will come from, Kramer predicts a universal appetite for these technologies. “Wearables are all the buzz right now. I can imagine funding for development of wearable technology coming from
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