3D printing particles of different shapes

Abstract

Researchers have been studying granular jamming in soft robotics in the last decade. These compliant systems have sparked interest due to their abilities to have varying stiffness as required. Conventionally, grains or particles of similar sizes have been used as the medium for jamming. However, this characteristic of granular jamming can be further explored with the use of differently shaped particles that can interpenetrate, reducing the slip of these particles with respect to each other and in turn forming structures of higher rigidity. This report experiments with 3D printed particles of different shapes filled in a latex membrane designed to function as a Universal Jamming Gripper developed by Brown, et al. Instead of a standard 3-point bending test to measure the structure’s stiffness, the method employed of a gripper can show the ability of these grains to re-orientate to a desired shape before harnessing its stiffness attribute. Presented are the two types of 3D printing technologies used for fabricating the parts required and hence conduct the experiment by measuring the support and lift force of the said gripper to determine the effect of particle shape on these parameters