Automated Fiber Embedding for Soft Mechatronic Components

Many recent advances in smart composites for soft robotics have resulted from integration of long fibers to precisely control structural and functional properties. Compared to the time-consuming, laborious and error-prone process of manual long fiber placement typically used, Automated Fiber Embedding (AFE) has an enormous potential in soft robotics due to its repeatability, precision, and ease of integration with commonly used elastomers. In this work, three different approaches for automated layering and embedding of fibers inside silicone elastomers are presented. These techniques enable fabrication of soft composites comprising linear and free-form long fiber patterns without user intervention or manual post-processing. To demonstrate the versatility of the techniques, several soft robotic applications ranging from actuators to inductive charging coils are presented.