Home Flexible & Soft Robots 3D Printed Soft Robots Tested Under Radiation

3D Printed Soft Robots Tested Under Radiation

52
0
🤖 check out more robots like this

Robots are already being used to perform inspection and sample collection in environments dangerous to humans. While soft robots have been used for many tasks, their usefulness under radiation has yet to be assessed. Researchers have now tested effectiveness soft robots fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane under radiation.

Evaluation of 3D Printed Soft Robots in Radiation Environments

As they explain:

We investigated gamma-induced mechanical damage in the PDMS materials’ mechanical properties, including elongation, tensile strength, and stiffness. We selected three radiation environments from the nuclear industry to represent a wide range of radiation and then submerged a 3D printed hexapus robot into a radiation environment to estimate its operation time. Results of this study show that with increasing exposure to gamma irradiation, the mechanical properties of PDMS decrease in functionality but are minimally impacted up to 20 kGy gamma radiation

These soft robots could operate for 12h in two of the 3 radiation environments. More info is available here.

*Our articles may contain aff links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Please read our disclaimer on how we fund this site.