A new resource created by researchers from several Harvard University labs in collaboration with Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, provides both experienced and novice researchers with the intellectual raw materials needed to design, build, and operate soft robots. Soft robotics is a growing field, which combines the classical principles of robot design with soft, flexible materials. Soft robots consist of low-cost, simple components that can achieve complex motions when inflated.

Fig. 1 – The Soft Robotics Toolkit is an online treasure trove of downloadable, open-source plans, how-to videos, and case studies to assist users in the design, fabrication, modeling, characterization, and control of soft robotic devices. A researcher is shown molding components. (Credit: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard SEAS.)
With the advent of low-cost 3D printing, laser cutters, and other advances in manufacturing technology, soft robotics is emerging as an increasingly important field. Using principles drawn from conventional rigid robot design, but working with pliable materials, engineers are pioneering the use of soft robotics for assisting in a wide variety of tasks such as physical therapy, minimally invasive surgery, and search-and-rescue operations in dangerous environments.

The Soft Robotics Toolkit (http://seas.harvard.edu ) is an online treasure trove of downloadable, open-source plans, how-to videos, and case studies to assist users in the design, fabrication, modeling, characterization, and control of soft robotic devices. It will provide researchers with a level of detail not typically found in academic research papers, including 3D models, bills of materials, raw experimental data, multimedia step-by-step tutorials, and case studies of various soft robot designs. (See Figure 1)

Stimulating Users’ Imagination

“The goal of the toolkit is to advance the field of soft robotics by allowing designers and researchers to build upon each other’s work,” says Conor Walsh, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

By creating a common resource for sharing design approaches, prototyping, and fabrication techniques, and technical knowledge, the toolkit’s developers hope to stimulate the creation of new kinds of soft devices, tools, and methods. (See Figure 2)

Fig. 2 – Working with the Soft Robotics Toolkit can lead to new discoveries. (Credit: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard SEAS.)
According to Walsh, soft robotics is especially well suited to shared design tools because many of the required components, such as regulators, valves, and microcontrollers, are largely interchangeable between systems.

Dónal Holland, a visiting lecturer in engineering sciences at SEAS and graduate student at Trinity College Dublin, is one of the lead developers of the toolkit and is especially interested in the toolkit’s potential as an educational resource.

“One thing we’ve seen in design courses is that students greatly benefit from access to more experienced peers—say, postdocs in a research lab—who can guide them through their work,” Holland says. “But scaling that up is difficult; you quickly run out of time and people. The toolkit is designed to capture the expertise and make it easily accessible to students.”

Just as open-source software has spurred far-flung innovation in computing, “open design” hardware platforms—coupled with advances in computer-aided engineering and more accessible prototyping capabilities—have the potential to foster remote collaboration on common mechanical engineering projects, unleashing crowd-sourced creativity in robotics and other fields.

To see a video about the Soft Robotics Toolkit, visit http://video.techbriefs.com/video/New-Online-Toolkit-to-Assist-Us ; medical.