Using a biaxial testing machine, researchers characterize and model silicone materials for complex soft-bodied robots.

Researchers at Tufts University (Medford, MA) are using a biaxial testing machine from Zwick Roell (Kennesaw, GA) to test biological and engineered biocompatible materials for the development of a soft-bodied robot. Based on the neuromechanical system of the caterpillar Manduca sexta, the softbot prototype is approximately 30 centimeters long and made of silicone elastomer. The mechanical material characterization is performed at the Soft Materials Characterization Laboratory at Tufts’ Advanced Technology Laboratory, led by Professor Luis Dorfmann.

The Zwick biaxial testing machine is being used to characterize isotropic and anisotropic elastomers and thus helps the researchers to model the behavior of the material. “Unlike vertebrates, caterpillars don’t have bones associated with their muscles to provide a system of levers,” says Professor Barry Trimmer, principal investigator on the project. “Though we know lots about vertebrate muscles we don’t know a whole lot about caterpillars’ muscles. Yet caterpillars can crawl up walls, grasp narrow branches or stems with sticky Velcro-like feet, and rotate their bodies almost full-circle as they sense their environment.”

Understanding soft materials is one of the first steps to building a robot that, like a caterpillar, could not be made out of traditional hard materials.

Potential applications for the robots include emergency search and retrieval, medical diagnosis and treatment, manufacturing and aerospace.

Though the soft-body robot prototypes will not be made with a material that can mimic all the properties of the natural cuticle, the group is aiming to make a soft-bodied robot using a biodegradable material, such as silk. “By developing a soft, flexible material that can degrade, a soft-bodied robot made of this material could enter the body as a diagnostic tool and not need to be retrieved,” says David Kaplan, co-principal investigator on the project and professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The Zwick machine is a custom-built biaxial material testing system equipped with four linear independently controlled actuators of 2-kilonewton capacity. It is used to determine the constitutive functions for the in-plane response of isotropic and anisotropic materials. Each actuator is fitted with a loading fixture for applications of tensile or compressive loads to the test sample and a dedicated load cell. The actuator drive system’s travel resolution is 0.1 micrometer, while the load cells resolution is 0.001 newton.

Zwick’s videoXtens extensometer, which is rigidly fixed to the machine frame, allows for noncontact strain measurements of materials that undergo medium to large deformations. The extensometer is equipped to capture both axial and transverse strains simultaneously in separate input channels. Camera lenses are interchangeable to permit different fields of view and minimum theoretical resolution range from 0.3 micrometer to 6 micrometers. The testing software testXpert II installed on a dedicated computer allows customization of test procedures, loading sequences as well as standard DIN, ISO and ASTM test programs.

“The Zwick machine has proved invaluable to us in our research,” says Professor Dorfmann. “Understanding and characterization of anisotropic materials requires testing with such specialized equipment.”

Zwick GmbH & Co. KG
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Benefits

Zwick testing machine enables researchers to characterize and model silicone materials for complex soft-bodied robots.

The actuator drive system’s travel resolution is 0.1 micrometer, while the load cells resolution is 0.001 newton.

Zwick’s videoXtens extensometer, which is rigidly fixed to the machine frame, allows for noncontact strain measurements of materials that undergo medium to large deformations.