Three-dimensional printing of a functionally graded robotic end effector
AssigneeChromatic 3D Materials, Inc.
InventorsCora Leibig, Michael Garrod
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A robotic end effector comprising at least two fingers connected through joints and a deformable pad on an exterior of the at least two fingers, wherein the deformable pad comprises a functionally graded hardness. A method for three dimensional printing of a deformable pad of a robotic end effector, comprising depositing a first material on an exterior of at least two fingers connected through joints, and depositing a second material on an exterior of the at least two fingers connected through joints, to produce a deformable pad, wherein the first material and the second material have a different hardness and the deformable pad comprises a functionally graded hardness.
Claims17
A method for three-dimensional printing of a robotic end effector finger comprising:
- depositing a first thermosetting material having a first hardness when set to form a first thermoset material,
- depositing a second thermosetting material having a second hardness when set to form a second thermoset material which is different than the first hardness such that the first thermoset material is connected to the second thermoset material to form at least a portion of a finger of the robotic end effector wherein at least a portion of the first thermoset material, and/or the second thermoset material form a deformable pad of the finger, and
- providing a first sensor and a second sensor,
- wherein the first thermosetting material, and the second thermosetting material are deposited layer by layer to form the portion of the finger;
- wherein the depositing comprises the sequential steps of
- providing a first sensor;
- depositing at least one layer of the first thermosetting material over the first sensor to embed the first sensor under the at least one layer of the first thermosetting material;
- providing a second sensor over the first thermosetting material;
- and
- depositing at least one layer of the second thermosetting material over the second sensor to embed the second sensor under the at least one layer of the second thermosetting material.
A robotic end effector comprising a finger comprising a first thermoset material having a first hardness and a second thermoset material having a second hardness different from the first hardness, wherein the first thermoset material is connected to the second thermoset material to form at least a portion of the finger of the robotic end effector, wherein at least a portion of the first thermoset material and the second thermoset material form a deformable pad of the finger,
- wherein
- the first thermoset material is present as one or more layers in the deformable pad of the finger and the second thermoset material is present as one or more layers in the deformable pad of the finger and the deformable pad of the finger further comprises (a) a first sensor embedded in the deformable pad of the finger, wherein the first sensor is disposed below the at least one layer of the first thermoset material, and (b) a second sensor embedded in the deformable pad of the finger, wherein the second sensor is disposed above the at least one layer of the first thermoset material in the deformable pad of the finger and below the at least one layer of the second thermoset material in the deformable pad of the finger.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.