New Single-Step Process To 3D Print Robots

Here at 3D Rapid Print, one of the fastest growing 3D Printing companies in the Thames Valley, we like to keep abreast of the latest innovations in 3D printing.

On June 16th 2022, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) announced that a team of its engineers and their colleagues had developed a new, single-step 3D printing technique for building robots using 3D printed piezoelectric metamaterials. (Piezoelectricity refers to a material’s ability to change shape and move in response to an externally applied electric field, or create an electric charge in response to an externally applied force. The word metamaterial can be defined as “A usually artificial material that exhibits special properties not normally found in nature.”) The team’s research was published in the journal Science.

UCLA argued that this would make what it described as a “meta-bot” capable of propulsion, movement, sensing and decision-making, whose only necessary external part was a small battery to power it. Boasting that the team’s materials were designed to bend, twist, expand and contract at high speeds, UCLA claimed that previous, similar materials were limited in their range of motion and travel distance. To demonstrate their concept, the team built 3 different fingernail-sized meta-bots: one that could navigate around S-shaped corners and randomly placed obstacles, one that could escape in response to a contact impact, and one that could walk over rough terrain and make small jumps.

UCLA argued that these meta-bots could be used to explore hazardous environments, for example helping rescue efforts by finding people trapped in the remains of a collapsed building. Study principal investigator and engineering professor Xiaoyu Zheng hoped that the team’s work would lead to the creation of new materials for robot manufacturing. He also contended that the team’s work could inspire new designs for biomedical robots, including self-steering endoscopes and tiny swimming robots, which could navigate via ultrasound to deliver drug doses to specific areas inside the body.

3D printing is an amazing tool. It can grow your small business or start a mini revolution in an industry. Explore what it can do for you when you contact us today.

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