With soft robotics, the aim is to create soft robots that are flexible and can adapt to any situation. Developments in 3D printing technology allow us to create such soft robots with embedded sensors using 3D printers.
This report shows the design, fabrication and working of a 3D printed soft robotic actuator beam with embedded strain gauge sensors for contact force sensing. All sensors have a bottom and top part, so that differential measurements can be done. The embedded sensors do a total of 7 voltage measurements so that area of contact can be determined. The beam and embedded sensors have been fabricated in one go using a multimaterial FFF 3D printer. The fabricated and tested actuator is able to sense contact forces with the environment. The embedded piezoresistive sensors are capable of monitoring the area of contact, using differential measurements. The sensors show a reasonable linear relation to applied forces. The actuator was made after a model based upon Euler Bernouilli beam theory.
However, the experimental results mismatched the theoretical model, most likely due to this theory not made for large beam deflections.