Professor Y.H. Chen completed his undergraduate studies in Southwest Jiaotong University (B.Sc) and  Ph.D in the University of Liverpool respectively. He had worked in industries such as Motorola and National/Panasonic for three years as senior R&D engineer before joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Hong Kong as a lecturer in 1993.  Professor Chen had served as editorial board members for a number of international journals such as Bio-Design and Manufacturing, Biofabrication, The RPD Magazine, etc. Since 1997, Professor Chen was involved in organizing more than 10 international conferences on product development and fabrication. His current research interests are in the field of additive manufacturing, soft robotics, and additive manufacturing of soft robotics with smart sensing and actuation. From 2020 onward, Professor Chen is ranked the top 1% highly cited scholar by Clarivate Analytics.

Topic title: 3D Printing for Soft Robotic Grippers: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract:

Soft robotic grippers based on broad scientific principles have been reported in recent years. 3D printing has revolutionized the speed and efficiency of design and fabrication processes in some of such soft robotic grippers. This presentation will introduce the on-going effort in 3D printing soft robotic grippers designed from different working principles. Promising capabilities and applications of such 3D printed soft robotic grippers will be demonstrated. However, the following persistent challenges remain to be addressed before 3D-printed soft robotic grippers find their widespread practical applications:

a)The limited range of printable soft materials limits soft grippers’ mechanical properties and performance metrics for intended grasping functionalities.

b)Lack of methodologies for integrated design of sensors and the gripper’s structure for multi-material 3D printing.

c)Mismatched properties between sensing element material and the base structure material of the soft gripper.

These challenges will be elaborated and current researches addressing these challenges be discussed as well.