Article: Mac Murray, BC; An, X; Robinson, SS; van Meerbeek, IM; O’Brien, KW; Zhao, HC; Shepherd, RF; (2015) “Poroelastic Foams for Simple Fabrication of Complex Soft Robots”, Advanced Materials, 27 (41):6334
Abstract: Open-celled, elastomeric foams allow the simple design of fully 3D pneumatic soft machines using common forming techniques. This is demonstrated through the fabrication of simple actuators and an entirely soft, functional fluid pump formed in the shape of the human heart. The device pumps at physiologically relevant frequencies and pressures and attains a flow rate higher than all previously reported soft pumps.
Funding Acknowledgement: Air Force Office of Scientific Research [FA9550-15-1-0160]; 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award; National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship [DGE-1144153]; NSF MRSEC program [DMR-1120296]; NIH [S10OD012287]
Funding Text: This work was supported in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number FA9550-15-1-0160, by a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, and by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1144153. This work made use of the Cornell Center for Materials Research Shared Facilities which are supported through the NSF MRSEC program (DMR-1120296). Imaging data were acquired in the Cornell BRC-Imaging Facility using the shared, NIH-funded (S10OD012287) ZEISS Xradia Versa 520 mu CT. The authors thank Christian Rieger and Frances Jaffe for assisting in producing foam samples, Mark Riccio for performing the mu CT imaging, and Barb Catlin, RT for performing fluoroscopy imaging.