Vision-based FDM Printing for Fabricating Airtight Soft Actuators

TL;DR

This paper introduces a webcam-assisted FDM printing method that enhances the air-tightness of soft robotic actuators, enabling more reliable and high-quality fabrication without extensive parameter tuning.

Contribution

The study presents a novel low-cost monitoring system that detects and corrects defects during FDM printing, improving airtightness of soft actuators.

Findings

Enhanced airtightness of printed actuators

No need for fine-tuning printing parameters

Improved defect detection during printing

Abstract

Pneumatic soft robots are typically fabricated by molding, a manual fabrication process that requires skilled labor. Additive manufacturing has the potential to break this limitation and speed up the fabrication process but struggles with consistently producing high-quality prints. We propose a low-cost approach to improve the print quality of desktop fused deposition modeling by adding a webcam to the printer to monitor the printing process and detect and correct defects such as holes or gaps. We demonstrate that our approach improves the air-tightness of printed pneumatic actuators without fine-tuning printing parameters. Our approach presents a new option for robustly fabricating airtight, soft robotic actuators.