Progressing Soft Robotic Functions Through Additive Manufacturing of Liquid Crystal Elastomers

The ability to structure smart materials in three dimensions can provide soft robotic systems with sensing and actuation capabilities, as well as other advanced functionalities. In particular, digital fabrication techniques can achieve all of this with high reproducibility, scalability, and flexibility in design, making them a key enabling technology for the future development of soft robotic systems with potential impact in various technological areas, including microfluidics, photonics, and biomedicine. Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are particularly interesting materials in soft robotics as they have demonstrated great potential for implementing complex shape-morphing structures when exposed to stimuli such as heat, light, or humidity. Recent developments in LCE fabrication have enabled the creation of actuators and devices with digitally defined director patterns, enabling programmed shape morphing. [1-3] However, challenges remain, such as the limited availability of functionalities and the miniaturization of structures. This lecture presents recent efforts carried out at the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory, with an emphasis on advancing new functionalities and achieving finer feature sizes. [4-9]

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Acknowledgments
The described research is part of the project STORM-BOTS. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 956150 (STORM-BOTS). The described research study was a part of the project PRIME. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 829010 (PRIME). Funding has also been received from Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU)” through AEI/FEDER(UE) PID2020-118485RB-I00 project, Gobierno de Aragón project LMP221_21, FEDER (EU), Fondo Social Europeo (DGA E15_20R) and by CIBER-Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CB16/01/00263), Instituto de Salud Carlos III.