Smart soft composite: An integrated 3D soft morphing structure using bend-twist coupling of anisotropic materials

• DOI: 10.1007/s12541-012-0081-8
• Publication Date: 2012-04-02T11:52:32Z
• Authors: Sung-Hoon Ahn; Kyung-Tae Lee; Hyung-Jung Kim; Renzhe Wu; Ji-Soo Kim; Sung-Hyuk Song
• Keywords: Morphing; Soft Robotics; Lamination; Smart material

Traditionally, hard or high-stiffness materials are used to achieve morphing but only with limited magnitudes of deformation. Soft and low-stiffness materials are required to implement soft morphing with large deformations. In this paper, a novel concept for soft morphing structures that makes use of smart soft composites (SSC) is introduced. These materials have the following characteristics: 1) Large deformations from smart actuators and soft anisotropic materials embedded in a soft matrix material, 2) Utilization of the coupling effect for in-plane/bending/twisting deformations of the morphing structure to achieve complex morphed shapes, 3) Semi-automated three-dimensional (3D) fabrication via 3D printing processes. Classical lamination theory is used to express in-plane deformation, out-of-plane deformation, and twisting and coupling of these deformations. 3D-printed-scaffold and/or weaving methods can be used to fabricate anisotropic materials for SSCs. An integrated SSC in a cantilever shape is fabricated using SMA (Shape memory alloy)/ABS/PDMS and tested as an example to show large deformation with bend/twist coupling effect.