I was looking forward to this week before, it's a week that allows us to do something new of our choosing, that's why I chose to learn Soft Robotics.
Learning:
- Individual Assignment
- Design the Mold
- Fabrication with 3D Printing technology
- Creating the Silicone Mold
- Blowing air into the mold
Individual Assignment
Design the Mold
I started with my friend Fusion 360.
I wanted to design a soft robotic a little bit different from the traditional one. Looks close to my HEXI Robot. So, 6 parts as legs and the front & back sides.
I started with design the chambers, each ont is 12mm tall and 2 mm in width.
![WC_1](../images/week16/WC_1.png)
Then I design the 6 legs.
![WC_2](../images/week16/WC_2.png)
I extruded the chambers with 4 mm high.
![WC_3](../images/week16/WC_3.png)
And the frame with 7 mm.
![WC_4](../images/week16/WC_4.png)
Finally extruded the base to be one body at the end.
![WC_5](../images/week16/WC_5.png)
Here's my mold 😁.
![WC_6](../images/week16/WC_6.png)
Also, I made another mold to be used as the bottom side of the silicon, I will explain later.
![WC_7](../images/week16/WC_7.png)
Fabrication with 3D Printing technology
After 7 hrs and a little bit, The two molds were ready.
![WC_8](../images/week16/WC_8.jpeg)
Creating the Silicone Mold
I used Ecoflex™ 00-30 as the silicon for my robot.
![WC_9](../images/week16/WC_9.jpeg)
And after carefully pouring, here is the view of the first mold with silicone. The other mold, I will pouring after the first one be ready.
![WC_10](../images/week16/WC_10.png)
After few hours, the first robot became ready 🙂
![WC_11](../images/week16/WC_11.png)
Next, I poured a simple layer of silicone into the second mold.
![WC_12](../images/week16/WC_12.png)
Then I added a piece of fabric to bend the robot in one direction and not the other.
![WC_13](../images/week16/WC_13.png)
After that, I put the silicone from the first mold on top of the fabric so that they fuse together.
![WC_14](../images/week16/WC_14.png)
After few hours also, my HEXI Sofot Robot became ready 🙂
![WC_15](../images/week16/WC_15.png)
Blowing air into the mold
I used Hand Rubber Pump to blow the air into the robot.
![WC_16](../images/week16/WC_16.png)
I had some air leakage, so I sealed the holes with the same material (Eco Flex), and the results good 🙂
You can download my files here: