Productions and Evaluations of Electroactive Smart

PRODUCTIONS AND EVALUATIONS OF ELECTROACTIVE SMART.
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

Introduction
There has been growing interest in soft robots applications from the new possibilities
that are being offered by such systems. This is done in order to cope up with the present
problems which cannot be solved by the normal robots built by the use of rigid structures. There
has been the development of many innovative ideas as far as the design of the soft components
and systems are concerned [1]. These innovations all demonstrate the close relationship between
advanced manufacturing processes as well as soft robot development.
Soft Robotics
Bio-inspiration has been so controversial for so long in the field of robotics and it is also
evident that it forms the precursor of the soft robots. The systems that are considered to be bio-
inspired mimic human and other animals’ capabilities. These systems have however been
designed by the use of the structures that are rigid. There is a need to champion for the soft
robotics work in order to simultaneously have inspiration from the natural properties. Soft robots
are those systems which have been built from materials whose mechanical characteristics are the
same as those in the living tissues [2].
They are designed and subsequently manufactured in every way of innovation which is better
than just artificial assembly of parts by parallel or serial arrangements. The enthusiasm that is
found within the concept of soft robotics originates from various scientific communities as used
in the new machine designs. This concept of soft robotics originated from the crossroads
between plastic engineering and the chemistry of mechatronics.
Soft Components for Building Robots

Soft Fluidic Actuation
The easiest and even fastest way of creating a homogeneous load on the deformable piece
of material is to effectively raise the pressure induced by using a specific medium of fluid [3].
This particular technique is employed in very many actuators of soft robots as well as their
implementations. Some of such simplest5 design involves the use of bladders that can quickly be
inflated with the compressed air thereby generating the required impulse for the robots to jump.
When a bladder is given a particular spatial structure like bellows or by thickening its
extremists, there will be specific favor on one direction of the expansion as compared with the
other parts. Also, it is possible to build bladders with the use of thin anisotropic films. These
components have high transverse flexibility with respect to the plane stiffness which will
obviously favor deformation in a particular direction [4]. When pleats are incorporated in the
design, the motion will be restricted to a particular direction. This kind of mechanical
programming can be performed by the use of the materials whose values of stiffness varies.
Alternative Soft Actuation Methods
There has been the development of solutions which rely entirely on the alternative
sources of energy or the actuation from the stimuli. This particular concept has resulted in more
options to the designers of soft robots [5]. Some of the materials components that are being used
depending on the thermal energy that allows them to change their state. The best example of
such cases includes the use of the Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) that practically transitions in
their crystalline structure under the changes in changes in the temperatures that are responsible
for the stored elastic energy release. Such component has very high specific power which

enables them to be used in applications of great compactness including live hinges on foldable
systems.
Robots are generally built through the association of the mechanical structures, control
systems as well as actuators [6]. The smart materials including Stimuli-Responsive Materials
(SRM) allow for the combination of both the actuation system as well as control functions. This
is because these kinds of materials usually respond to the external stimulus like light,
temperature, and chemicals. Similar to the case of the availability of photo-responsive shape
memory as well as shape-changing polymers, EAP is utilized for such kinds of the job.
Electronic System
Fabrication and designing of power electronic components closely depend on the
introduction of Kapton coated wires within a printed substrate which on its dielectric breakdown
an ultrasonic embedding approach is used that enables complex geometrical embedding through
customized software [7]. This kind of electronic system describes an effective embedding of a
larger diameter Kapton coated wire into a substrate called polycarbonate. The custom software
allows generation of embedding tool paths directly from a designed model.
Circular pre-formed activities give a clear result of the most successful embedding paths.
The idea of developing a large embedding diameter wire came from the analyzed characteristics
of myriad samples of printing. By using the Foundry Multi3D System, the increased complexity
of embedded electronic parts further facilitates the implementation of manufacturing in a wide
range of applications. Hybrid manufacturing is where two or more processes of manufacturing
come together to fabricate parts in a simple chain process at a stipulated time. Conventional