A review of 3D printing processes and materials

for soft robotics

Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong
Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore,
Singapore

Abstract
Purpose – Soft robotics is currently a rapidly growing new field of robotics whereby the robots are fundamentally soft and elastically deformable.
Fabrication of soft robots is currently challenging and highly time- and labor-intensive. Recent advancements in three-dimensional (3D) printing of
soft materials and multi-materials have become the key to enable direct manufacturing of soft robots with sophisticated designs and functions.
Hence, this paper aims to review the current 3D printing processes and materials for soft robotics applications, as well as the potentials of 3D
printing technologies on 3D printed soft robotics.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the polymer 3D printing techniques and materials that have been used for the development
of soft robotics. Current challenges to adopting 3D printing for soft robotics are also discussed. Next, the potentials of 3D printing technologies and
the future outlooks of 3D printed soft robotics are presented.
Findings – This paper reviews five different 3D printing techniques and commonly used materials. The advantages and disadvantages of each
technique for the soft robotic application are evaluated. The typical designs and geometries used by each technique are also summarized. There is
an increasing trend of printing shape memory polymers, as well as multiple materials simultaneously using direct ink writing and material jetting
techniques to produce robotics with varying stiffness values that range from intrinsically soft and highly compliant to rigid polymers. Although the
recent work is done is still limited to experimentation and prototyping of 3D printed soft robotics, additive manufacturing could ultimately be used
for the end-use and production of soft robotics.
Originality/value – The paper provides the current trend of how 3D printing techniques and materials are used particularly in the soft robotics
application. The potentials of 3D printing technology on the soft robotic applications and the future outlooks of 3D printed soft robotics are also
presented.
Keywords Additive manufacturing, 3D printing, Multi-materials, Soft robotics, Soft materials
Paper type General review

1. Introduction (Goh et al., 2018), ceramics (Sing et al., 2017) and elastomer
(Ge et al., 2013).
Additive manufacturing (AM) or more commonly known as The advancements in 3D printing of soft materials have
three-dimensional (3D) printing, is a group of techniques that
enabled greater design complexity and faster fabrication of soft
join materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually
robots. With inspiration from nature, soft robotics is currently a
layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing
rapidly growing new field of robotics whereby the robots are
techniques such as machining. With the advances of
fundamentally soft and elastically deformable and adapt their
technology, 3D printing has been increasingly adopted for the
shape to external constraints and obstacles (Kim et al., 2013).
creation of the end-use parts (Goh et al., 2017; Yap and Yeong,
Conventional robotic systems are mostly made of rigid
2014; Carbon, 2017). The manufacturing of end-use parts
using AM could take advantage of the increased design mechanical components such as links and joints so that they
freedom offered by AM to enhance the part functionality. can perform extremely fast, precise, powerful and repetitive
Nonetheless, not all the materials are readily printable, limiting position control tasks efficiently. However, the robotic systems
the extent of adoption in the structural applications as many have to be less rigid and more flexible to have the capabilities to
AM materials are not strong or durable enough. Hence, current perform more adaptive and flexible interactions with complex
research focus in AM community has been steered toward new unpredictable environments and to become more lifelike and
material development and process development to enable compatible for human interaction (Iida and Laschi, 2011;
printing of common engineering materials such as composites Lipson, 2014). Some examples of applications include
automated agricultural robots for fruit harvesting (Chua et al.,

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1355-2546.htm Acknowledgement: This research is supported by the National Research
Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Medium-Sized
Centre funding scheme.

Rapid Prototyping Journal Received 29 November 2019

© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1355-2546] Revised 17 March 2020
[DOI 10.1108/RPJ-11-2019-0302] Accepted 22 May 2020
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

2003; Chowdhary et al., 2019), medical devices for surgery direct 3D printing of soft robotic components and 3D printing
(Phee et al., 2008; Diodato et al., 2018), wearable soft robots of soft materials for actuation purposes have been selected and
for rehabilitation (In et al., 2015; Maeder–York et al., 2014; discussed in Section 2. Section 3 proposes the challenges and
Polygerinos et al., 2015) and robotic bin picking (Anandan, potentials in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 presents the future
2016; Homberg et al., 2015). looks and conclusion.
Soft robotics not only require the use of flexible and soft
materials such as elastomer and toughened polymers to lend 2. Three-dimensional printing techniques and
themselves to highly flexible and deformable structures but also materials for soft robotic applications
it needs another material to act as a stiffener to achieve
manipulation and locomotion capabilities and/or directional There are generally five 3D printing techniques that are used
control (Calisti et al., 2011). This can be achieved by insertion for soft robotic applications, they are: material extrusion, which
of another strain limiting material with higher rigidity into the includes fused deposition modeling (FDM) [also known as
soft-bodied system. Many of the existing soft robotics are fused filament fabrication (FFF)] and direct ink writing (DIW),
inspired by the biomechanical features of soft-bodied animals vat photopolymerization, powder bed fusion and material
and are made of intrinsically soft, extensible and highly jetting. The process mechanism of each 3D printing technique
compliant materials that can deform and absorb energy during and materials used to produce the soft robotics and the types of
a collision (Rus and Tolley, 2015). Soft components allow the soft robots being fabricated using each technique are
animals to conform to various surfaces and to lower the impact summarized in Table 1 and reviewed in the following sections.
force or stress concentration by distributing the stress over a
larger contact area. This is especially important for soft robotics 2.1 Material extrusion
interacting with soft materials such as tissues and organs and 2.1.1 Fused deposition modeling or fused filament fabrication
encountering deformable surfaces such as mud and soft soil as FDM, also known as FFF is one of the most heavily adopted
stress concentrations may cause physical injury with humans or material extrusion 3D printing processes whereby the
robot immobility, respectively (Majidi, 2014). thermoplastic filament is melted by the liquefier and then
Many conventional fabrications of soft robots involve extruded through a nozzle onto a platform. As the filament is
molding and casting that can be customized and 3D printed. deposited continuously on the print platform, it cools and
Direct 3D printing of soft robots has yet to become one of the solidifies while forming bonds with the surrounding materials,
mainstream fabrication techniques because of material producing the 3D objects (Brian et al., 2014). FDM is highly
constraints. Nevertheless, as more materials are compatible compatible with a broad range of materials, including
with existing 3D printing technology, they are increasingly acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polylactic acid (PLA), nylon
replacing the conventional soft robot fabrication approach of and polycarbonate. Because of the relatively cheap and easily
molding and casting. available and reliable desktop FDM printers, this technique has
There is a lot of ongoing efforts in the development of 3D been heavily used to fabricate the molds for casting the
printed soft robots at various scales. A few comprehensive commercial elastomer such as silicone (Onal and Rus, 2012).
articles are reviewing the 3D printing technologies and Anver et al. (2017) printed the soft monolithic fingers and
materials for soft robotics and each of these reviews have gripper using an FDM printable and commercially available
presented several research potentials such as optimization of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) filament, FilaFlex (Recreus,
both material and printer for printing soft materials (Walker Spain). The air chambers were specially designed with stronger
et al., 2019), integration of soft actuators and sensors through lateral support to eliminate the use of supporting rafts during
multi-material printing (Wallin et al., 2018), as well as printing. Mutlu et al. (2016) also fabricated a soft robotic finger
biological in vitro and in vivo soft robots (Gul et al., 2018). using FilaFlex and the printed soft robotic finger was assembled
This paper aims to present the state-of-the-art review on 3D with a stiffness augmenting unit made of thin polyvinyl chloride
printing of soft robotics. Various existing 3D printing (PVC) sheets. The stiffness of the robotic finger was controlled by
techniques and 3D printed materials, including elastomers, the position and thickness of the stiffness augmenting unit within
flexible materials, shape-memory materials and smart the channels of the soft robotic finger. Stiffness of the soft robotic
composites that have been used for soft robotics are surveyed finger could increase up to 40% by increasing the thickness of the
and presented. Limitations and advantages of each 3D printing stiffness augmentation unit. One advantage of this method is that it
techniques are highlighted. Also, the challenges of current 3D does not require an external pressure source to control the flexible
printing technologies that are relevant to soft robotics are components or a servo drive to control the overlapping layer and
presented. Next, the potentials of 3D printing technologies and friction. Yap et al. (2016) also printed the bellow-type actuators
3D printed materials that could bring about value-adding and directly with the FDM technique using the commercially available
improvement to soft robotics are discussed. Finally, the paper thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filament, NinjaFlex
highlights the challenges faced to adopt 3D printing for soft (NinjaTek, PA). Extensive experiments and finite element
robots and the future directions of 3D printing of soft robotics. simulations were carried out to characterize and model the
The literature review for this review paper was carried out on bending behavior and force soft pneumatic actuators under
the Web of Science database, with publications dated from different pressures. In addition, cyclic testing was also performed
2005 to 2019. In total, 592 combined search results were to investigate the durability of 3D printed actuators. Soft grippers
obtained from two sets of keywords “3D printing, AM or rapid and a soft robotic hand exoskeleton were developed and have
prototyping” and “soft robot, soft robotic or soft actuator”. In shown high customizability and high payload-to-weight ratio, as
this paper, 47 publications that fulfill the selection criteria of compared to other molded soft grippers. Keong and Hua (2018)
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

Table 1 3D Printing techniques used for fabricating soft robotics

3D printing 3D printed Typical
techniques materials design Typical size Actuation method Advantages Disadvantages
FDM or FFF TPE filament Tubular Diameter: Pneumatic Cheap Materials that are too soft or have too
Filament made from gripper >10 mm SMP can be formed high transition temperature are
SMP Fingers-like Length: into filament and be challenging to be printed properly
grippers <150 mm printed Materials have generally higher
High load to weight hardness
ratio
DIW Elastomer Tubes Depends on Pneumatic Functional materials or Extra curing after every layer might be
Silicone Simple 3D the setup Electric elastomers with needed and slows down the printing
constructs and material Magnetic particles can be
printed
Multiple materials can
be printed
Vat Hydrogels (PEGDA) Tubular Length: <50 Pneumatic High resolution (0.2 Materials tend to have a low ultimate
polymerization Elastomer-like grippers mm Other activating mm thin wall can be strain
resinsSilicone Beam-like layers such as printed) Poor fatigue properties
grippers residual stress from Complex designs can
cell sheet be printed
Light-actuated
Powder bed TPU92A-1 Multi-arm Depends on Pneumatic High resolution PA12 is not an elastomer and would
fusion PA12 snake-like the machine Bowden wire Complex structures yield and deformed plastically
kinematic can be printed
structure No support structures/
Multi-fingered materials needed
hand
Material jetting Elastomer-like resins Bellows Height: >90 Pneumatic Multi-material designs Limited material selection
Acrylic-like resins Membranes mm Shape memory wire can be printed Poor fatigue properties
Epoxy and Octopus-like Length: 200 Fast printing speed Costly
Polyurethane tentacle mm High resolution The material tends to have a low
shapes ultimate strain

also used the Ninjaflex for their 3D printed soft pneumatic symmetric and asymmetric bend-twist motions can be
actuator. The actuator, which has a fold-based design to achieve achieved upon pulling of the wire. James et al. (2015) made
different bending profiles through variations of fold designs and use of the FDM technique to fabricate soft active structures
placement of the strain limiting layer, can generate high force using the electroactive ionomeric polymer to create a 3D soft
output at a safe pressure [Figure 1(a)]. Igus (2018) developed the ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC), namely the Nafion
FDM-printed flexible grippers made from the iglidurV R filament precursor filament. After the precursor polymer is printed, it
for Carecos Kosmetick GmbH. The grippers with flexible undergoes a hydrolysis process and effective electroless
elements are used to screw on lids onto jars for cosmetic products. plating process to induce electroactivity in the 3D-printed
The 3D printed grippers are also lighter and wear-resistant and models, to create a functional IPMC. Results from this study
they enabled up to 85% cost saving compared to previously showed that the deflections achieved by the 3D printed
aluminium grippers. IPMC were like that of those fabricated from commercially
Elgeneidy et al. (2018) used the FDM printer with a dual- available Nafion sheet stock. However, the printed actuator
extruder print head, which allows the simultaneous printing of shows a slower response and slower back relaxation effect
the flexible and conductive filaments, to directly print the than the conventional IPMC.
flexible strain sensors onto a bending actuator. The actuator Yang et al. (2016) processed the shape memory polymer
body was also printed using Ninja flex while the sensing tracks (SMP) (DiAPLEX MM-4520) pellets into FDM printable
were printed using conductive PLA filament from Proto-Pasta. filament feedstock. A robotic gripper was fabricated, as
The flexible sensorized bending actuator can be calibrated to shown in Figure 1(c), to demonstrate the shape morphing
provide bending feedback and simple contact detection, as capability of the SMP gripper when it is being heated above
shown in Figure 1(b). its glass transition temperature.
Song et al. (2017) fabricated a soft actuator by combining
FDM-printed scaffold structures with embedded wires to 2.1.2 Direct ink writing
achieve bend-twist coupled motion. By controlling the raster DIW is a 3D printing process in which ink passes through a
angles of the different plies in the scaffold structures, nozzle under ambient conditions in a controlled manner. Upon
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

Figure 1 Examples of soft robots printed using the FDM technique

deposition, the ink solidifies into a solid object through components (Li et al., 2015), microfluidic systems (Therriault
different processing steps such as photopolymerization or et al., 2003) and photonic bandgap materials (Gratson et al.,
thermal curing. DIW relies on the fluid-flow-based printing of a 2006).
viscoelastic ink and the ink retains its shape after extrusion by Morrow et al. (2017) printed the soft robotic actuators by
its shear thinning behavior. To induce the flow through the direct extrusion of pre-mixed silicone using a syringe needle
nozzle in DIW, the deposition of the ink is controlled by a and pump. Each printed layer of silicone was heat-treated using
pressure source such as a plunger that applies a pressure larger a heat gun to accelerate the crosslinking of silicone before the
than the yield stress of the ink. DIW technique can pattern next layer is printed. Despite having printing height error of 5%
printable inks that are formulated from a broad range of and large percentage error in the wall thickness due to the flow
molecular, polymeric or particulate species. The ink can be of the silicone during printing, the 3D printed soft actuators
selected based on its flow characteristics such as viscosity, could respond close to the molded actuator, with a small
surface tension, shear stress and shear elastic and loss moduli average error of 5%.
(Truby and Lewis, 2016). Through careful control of ink Yirmibesoglu et al. (2018) have developed a DIW printer to
composition, rheological behavior and printing parameters, fabricate two-part platinum cure silicones. The printed soft
DIW can construct 3D structures that consist of continuous robotics have shown similar or better performance than the
solids, high aspect ratio or freestanding features (Lewis, 2006). molded counterparts while being stronger and more reliable. It
DIW has shown various prospects in the domains of tissue is also demonstrated that the fabrication time of 3D printing is
engineering scaffolds (Fu et al., 2011), piezoelectric only 1/4 of that of molding and 3D printing of soft robotics
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

requires less human intervention and a reduced number of digital micromirror device (Quan et al., 2020). However, as the
fabrication steps. In another study, Schaffner et al. (2018) LED light source in the LED-based printers has lower light
developed a multi-material DIW of light-curable silicones that intensity and power than that in DLP, it could not work with a
enables locally tunable stiffness into pneumatic driven soft wide range of resin.
actuators with high freedom of programable motion. After On the other hand, 2PP, which is known for its highest
printing the cylindrical elastomeric body, stiff fibers were printing resolution (100 nm), is mainly used to 3D print
coated onto the polymerized silicone cylinder by continuously micron-scale structures with complex architecture for
turning the cylindrical part while the nozzle deposits the stiff applications such as micro-electromechanical systems, drug
ink. Learning from the bio-inspired muscular hydrostats, the delivery devices, microfluidic devices and scaffolds. (Nguyen
lead angle of the fiber winding and printing orientation of the and Narayan, 2017). The design and fabrication of soft
stiff fibers were altered to achieve various programed motions material, particularly hydrogels, has been a significant research
including elongation, contraction and twisting motions, as area in 2PP microfabrication (Xing et al., 2015). Several studies
shown in Figure 2(a). have reported the stimuli-responsive hydrogels fabricated by
Kim et al. (2018) adopted the DIW technique to print an 2PP exhibiting physical changes in response to ions (Xiong
elastomer composite containing ferromagnetic microparticles et al., 2011), temperature (Han et al., 2018b) and humidity (Lv
[Figure 2(b)]. A magnetic field is applied to the dispensing et al., 2018). A recent study by Zheng et al. (2020) has also
nozzle while printing to impart patterned magnetic polarity to demonstrated the successful fabrication of microactuator using
printed filaments. The magnetic ink consists of magnetizable 2PP where the light-driven 3D hydrogel actuator, with a size of
neodymium-iron-boron microparticles and fumed silica 26 m m, exhibits fast response and good reversibility. Another
nanoparticles embedded in silicone rubber matrix containing study by Soreni–Harari et al. (2019) presented a multi-step
silicone catalyst and a crosslinker. By switching the applied field approach of 2PP multi-material fabrication using elastomer
direction or changing the printing direction, the magnetic and rigid material to produce a 2 mm microrobots with flapping
polarities of the printed inks can be controlled and tuned. The wing mechanism that can undergo large deformation.
shape morphing structure can deform up to strain levels of 0.15 Chan et al. (2012b) developed a biological soft robot that is
to 0.25 within 0.1 s to 0.5 s, demonstrating a much higher actuated with residual stress of printed cantilever structure and
actuation rate than existing shape transforming soft materials. the contractile forces of a cardiac cell sheet attached to the
Another study by Roh et al. (2019) directly printed the cantilever structure. The cantilever structure was printed with
polydimethylsiloxane home composite capillary pastes, which hydrogels using the SLA technique while the cells were seeded
contain 20 Wt.% magnetic particles using DIW. The elastin- onto the structure to provide retraction force onto the
like soft mesh can be actuated through the use of magnetic structure. In another work, Chan et al. (2012) also presented
forces of a single electromagnet, mediated by capillarity, while the feasibility of printing two different hydrogels in the same 3D
floating on water, performing controlled shape change by construct using SLA by switching resin vats. In a recent study
laterally contraction and expansion of the mesh. The soft mesh by Goswami et al. (2019), a commercial flexible photopolymer
demonstrated the potential as a soft extending grabber to was used to 3D print the low-density, 3D architected soft
capture an object floating on water and magnetic responsive machines (ASMs) using the SLA technique. It was shown that
water droplet dispenser that could be useful in droplet upon tendon-based actuation, the deformation and motions,
microfluidics and drug release devices. such as contraction, twisting, bending and cyclic motions, are
dependent on the topological structure including the types of
2.2 Vat photopolymerization lattice or tessellations, the thickness of the beam and the cell
One of the earliest and most established vats size of the tessellations. However, this design method is
photopolymerization method is Stereolithography (SLA). SLA currently limited by the resolution of 3D printing and the
process builds an object by selectively scanning a vat of availability of 3D printable elastomeric material. Hence, the
photopolymer resins using a laser or other ultraviolet (UV) light authors have also fabricated ASMs using silicone (Ecoflex 00–
sources. Each layer of the object is printed by moving a UV 30) by injection molding from a 3D printed mold and the
light beam on the surface of the resin by steering it in X and Y ASMs could perform ultrahigh reversible compression (400%)
directions with galvanometric mirrors. After printing the first and extension (500%).
layer, the build platform lowers one layer and another fresh DLP SLA technique was used to fabricate soft actuators
layer of resin is recoated by a blade to cover the already using commercial photopolymers such as Tango Plus from
polymerized object. The photopolymers are sensitive to UV Stratasys (Ge et al., 2018) as shown in Figure 3(a) and Spot-E
lights and would be crosslinked upon scanning. There are also from Spot-A material (Bryan et al., 2015) as shown in Figure 3
other types of vat photopolymerization 3D printing techniques (b). Because of the high resolution of the DLP technique and
such as digital light processing (DLP), light crystal display material compliance, it was proven to be able to prototype soft
(LCD), continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) and actuators with relatively good deformation capability, despite
two-photon polymerization (2PP). DLP, LCD and CLIP have the relatively low ultimate strain of the cured resin. To
faster printing speed, as the entire cross-section of a layer is overcome the limited ultimate strains and low fatigue strength
illuminated and solidified by the projection of a mask pattern, in the commercially available resin, Wallin et al. (2017)
as compared to SLA that uses point-source laser radiation. formulated silicones that are highly extensible with stiffness
LCD-based printing is a relatively new process that uses an closed to natural tissues and directly printed the antagonistic
affordable LCD screen that produces lesser distortion and pair of fluidic elastomer actuators (FEAs), as shown in Figure 3
higher resolution, as compared to DLP that uses the expensive (c), using the DLP technique to showcase its potential in
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

Figure 2 Examples of soft robots printed using DIW technique

achieving soft robotics with highly complex 3D architecture and between the interfaces on the anode side. A gripper and an
long life cycle of (50% of the maximum actuation amplitude object transporter were printed with actuation elements, as
over 5,000 times). Besides, the material system permits self- shown in Figure 3(d) and they have different characteristic
healing via sunlight-induced photopolymerization to reseal the thicknesses, and hence, the actuation speed to demonstrate the
torn actuator within 30 s. soft robotic manipulation. Bidirectional locomotion was also
Smart composites that are electric field and magnetic field showcased using a 3D printed humanlike EAH structure
responsive have also been 3D printed via vat through the deformation-induced shift of the center of gravity
photopolymerization processes. Han et al. (2018a) printed soft in an electric field. A recent study by Joyee and Pan (2019) has
actuators using the electroactive hydrogels (EAH), which is used the magnetic field-assisted projection SLA process to
highly deformable in response to an electric field. DLP produce a magnetic field responsive soft robot with bi-axial
technique was used to photo polymerize the EAH precursor locomotion capability. The locally programed magnetic
solution. EAH printed beam placed in phosphate-buffered particle distributions in the anterior and posterior legs of the
saline electrolyte exhibits bending deformation when an electric soft robot have attributed to an untethered magnetic actuation
field is applied because of the difference in osmotic pressure that allows crawling, steering and turning locomotion. The
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

Figure 3 Examples of soft robots printed with stereolithography

study also showcased the locomotion performance of the The FESTO bionic handling assistant (BHA) consists of a
printed soft robot for drug delivery in a synthetic human resilient gripper arm whose structure and overall functional
stomach structure. With the magnetic actuation guide, the soft principle imitate an elephant’s trunk and three fingers whose
robot can crawl through the narrow esophagus and uneven structure is based on the Fin Ray Effect (FESTO, 2012).
structure while carrying liquid drugs without spilling. Manufacturing using PA 12 by SLS, the thin-walled bellow
structure is flexible and resilient to hold and transport sensitive
2.3 Powder bed fusion objects with varying contours while the necessary stiffness is
Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a powder bed fusion (PBF) provided by the precise pneumatic control. The BHA has
process that builds objects from solid grains of powder. The overall 11 degrees of freedom to perform a variety of task-
polymer powder in a powder bed is locally heated to a specific travel paths that are not linear.
temperature that is just below the powder’s melting point then Rost and Schädle (2013) developed an SLS printed multi-
a rastering laser scans across the surface of a powder bed and fingered robotic hand using bellow actuators that is capable of
selectively fuses the powdered material. Then the next layer of performing tasks including gripping, lifting and rotating a
polymer powder is deposited and rolled across the print sphere or a cube, via reinforcement learning. Scharff et al.
platform and the laser sintering process is repeated until the (2017) used flexible polyurethane TPU92A-1 via the SLS
desired 3D model is built completely. The unsintered powder technique to fabricate the bellow designed soft robotic hand.
can act as the support material and they can be reused after The robotic hand consists of four uniquely designed
printing. Two of the common SLS materials are polyamide 12 components, namely, bending, rotational and bidirectional
(PA 12) and TPU, which are intrinsically stiff but can be actuator, as well as the sensing air chambers.
flexible depending on the 3D geometrical design and wall Fischer et al. (2015) fabricated the Cam Bot, which is an
thickness. interactive soft actuator that can communicate and react to
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

human actions. The robot is made up of 12 individual thin- quadruped robot’s soft legs, performing challenging
walled air chambers printed using PA 12. On the other hand, locomotion to walk over unstructured terrain using multi-
Roppenecker et al. (2013) used the flexure hinges and directional actuated bending. Zatopa et al. (2018) used the
compliant mechanisms that are printed with PA 12 powder digital material FLX9750, a blend of the Tango and Vero
using the SLS technique, to achieve snake-like kinematics that materials to fabricate a hydraulic control valve. In addition to
can manipulate flexible endoscopic instruments. SLS the 3D printed elastomeric body, electrorheological (ER) fluid
technique was also used to fabricate the anthropomimetic robot was used as a working fluid and gallium-indium-tin liquid
that replicates the human upper limb using PA 12 powder metal alloy was used as electrodes to develop a soft octopus-like
(Jäntsch et al., 2013). Besides having the ability to customize robot.
the tendon canals and ducts for the wiring, 3D printing has The commercial resins from Stratasys have been investigated
reduced the part counts and produced a thin wall lightweight and confirmed to possess shape memory capability in previous
design in this complex robot. research (Qi et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2015; Joanne Ee Mei et al.,
2017). Using the hybrid multi-material 3D printing techniques
2.4 Material jetting of material jetting and DIW, Zhang et al. (2019) has fabricated
Material jetting is an AM process in which the inkjet print the fast-response stiffness-tunable soft SMP actuator and
heads jet the liquid resin onto the platform before solidifying. demonstrated its high load capacity and good shape adaptivity
Poly Jet printing process from Stratasys is one of the most by a robotic gripper that can grasp and lift various weights and
established materials jetting printing processes. Droplets of the shapes. The soft actuator was made up of an assembly of multi-
photopolymer materials are selectively dispensed through the material actuator body and DIW printed conductive circuit on
tiny nozzles in the print heads, which consist of numerous top of the SMP slices, which are printed with Agilus30 and
linearly aligned nozzles. They are immediately UV-cured and Vero Clear using PolyJet. The deformable conductive circuit
solidified to build the 3D structure after undergoing was printed using silver nanoparticles to improve the rate of
crosslinking in response to UV light, then the next layer repeats heating and cooling for faster softening-stiffening of the SMP.
until the model is built completely. Commercial resins based on This study has shown the potential to combine various AM
methacrylate or acrylate chemistries with distinct physical and techniques to directly produce SMP actuator with printed
mechanical properties can be simultaneously deposited conductive circuits. Rossiter et al. (2009) presented a two-
selectively to fabricate 3D multi-material models directly. A membrane antagonistic actuator fabricated by the Stratasys
single printed part can have a variety of mechanical properties, PolyJet printer. All the dielectric actuator membranes and
opacities and colors (Vaezi et al., 2013). The major commercial ancillary components were almost fully 3D printed in this study
material jetting 3D printers are the PolyJet from Stratasys and using the Tango and Vero materials. Despite the high-
MultiJet from 3D systems. Both companies have their resolution structures produced, the printed elastomer could not
proprietary materials including the rigid plastics and flexible perform on par to commercial dielectric materials in terms of its
urethane-acrylate. Multiple different materials can be fed into mechanical and electrical integrity.
the print heads and can be jetted selectively together with the Using a drop-on-demand piezoelectric inkjet system, 3D
support materials. The functionally graded structure can also printing of thermal and UV-cure dielectric elastomer actuator
be fabricated through selective deposition of different materials (DEA) was developed (David et al., 2017). DEA membranes as
in different ratios. For instance, digital materials with Shore A thin as 2 m m possess good mechanical and actuation
ranging from 35 to 100 can be produced by combining the performance (actuated up to 130 V m m 1 at 2.4% strain) as
Stratasys’ Tango material like TangoBlackPlus FLX980, with a
rigid resin from the Vero family such as VeroWhitePlus Figure 4 Examples of soft robotics fabricated by a material jetting
RGD835. technique
Bartlett et al. (2015) directly printed the functional body of a
combustion-powered soft robot using the digital materials with
stiffness gradients that range over three orders of magnitude
(1 MPa to 1 GPa) [Figure 4(a)]. The stiffness gradient design
allows the transition from soft to rigid components, which
minimized stress concentration at the interface of the two
materials. The gradient top robot has shown high resilience and
good performance and did not suffer significant damage
because of brief exposure to the flames and elevated
temperatures. Bellowed-type actuator design is one of the most
common soft robotic designs that use the multi-material
material jetting process technique (Drotman et al., 2017;
Zatopa et al., 2018; Kalisky et al., 2017; MacCurdy et al., 2016;
Zhang et al., 2019). This is because the bellowed design can
reduce the resistance to bending of the module compared to
simple straight tube geometry. Digital materials, which are a
mix of Tango and Vero materials from Stratasys, were used to
fabricate the bellowed soft actuators in these studies. These
bellowed components could be assembled and formed the
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

compared to PolyJet material, which has a low breakdown SMP is rigid below its glass transition temperature (Tg) but
strength of 60 V m m 1 without pre-strain. Similarly, a would become elastomeric when it is heated above Tg (Choong
commercial service provider, ACEO (ACEO, 2018) developed et al., 2017).
the proprietary silicone printing process based on a drop-on- Materials including elastomers, flexible/elastic material and
demand principle. Using the ACEO technology, Heung et al. SMPs, can be easily processed and printed directly with
(2019) 3D printed a soft robotic hand for providing controlled parameters using conventional techniques. On the
rehabilitation training. The robotic hand consists of other hand, smart composite, for example, magnetorheological
elastomeric-based actuator body, which was directly printed fluid, requires external application of magnetic field to the flow
from ACEO using silicone that has 30 Shore A hardness and direction of the ink via a permanent magnet or an
then reinforced with double-helical fiber wrapping, to electromagnetic coil placed around dispensing nozzle, to
withstand large deformation and input pressure. The results impart a permanent magnetic moment to the extruded ink
showed that the possible flexion angle of the finger is 137° and (Kim et al., 2018). Also, to print multiple materials
could produce a tip force of 2.45 N at 160 kPa, which are both simultaneously, multiple extruders or printing heads are
sufficient to perform grasping and gripping activities. needed (Jahan Zeb et al., 2016; David et al., 2017; MacCurdy
Even though the design of the PolyJet-printed soft robots et al., 2016). Similarly, the deposition of dissimilar material
demonstrated high functionality under bending, twisting and such as SMA within elastomer requires the use of another
stretching because of its superior lateral resolution of 50 m m, it deposition head (Jahan Zeb et al., 2016).
has been identified that the existing 3D printed material still However, due to the incompatibility of the material and
limits the compliance and robustness under fatigue (Rossiter
printing technique, some materials that could not be directly
et al., 2009; Zatopa et al., 2018; Drotman et al., 2017). As
printed within a single system, have to be injected, added or
commercial PolyJet currently offers only limited proprietary
assembled to the final printed components. Some examples are
elastomer material, the researcher has taken the approach to
wrapping the soft tubular actuator using fibers (Morrow et al.,
custom made a UV-assisted rotational multi-head inkjet
2017), deposition of thin PVC layer in-between printed parts as
printing system to print polyurethane and epoxy (Jahan Zeb
stiffness augment unit (Mutlu et al., 2016), printing silver
et al., 2016). This process was used to fabricate a multi-material
nanoparticles using DIW onto printed parts (Zhang et al.,
tri-legged soft robot inspired by a spider. Soft legs were
2019), inserting SMA into printed parts (Han et al., 2018c;
configured and printed in two halves using polyurethane and
epoxy, as shown in Figure 4(b). With the use of biometal Umedachi et al., 2013) and injection of the ER fluid (Zatopa
filament (BMF) as the actuator, the tri-legged “soft-bot” that et al., 2018).
can be controlled and paced via external electrical signals.
Unlike the previous case whereby printing has to be paused to 3. Challenges
insert additional components such as wires or conductive ink, 3.1 Resolution and repeatability
the BMF wires can be placed directly on the desired locations The nozzle diameters determine the resolution of FDM and
by using the additional configured header to fully automate the DIW techniques. Larger nozzle diameters might lead to poorer
fabrication of the soft robots. resolution. In addition, the thermofluidic behavior of the ink is
also one of the key issues to ensure the resolution and
2.5 Three-dimensional printing materials for soft repeatability of the printing and this directly determines the
robotic applications speed of movement of the nozzle, material flow rate and
The 3D printing materials used for fabricating soft robots have microstructures of the printed part. Among the polymer 3D
been discussed in previous sections. The printable materials printing techniques, commercial SLA and material jetting
can be categorized into five categories, namely, elastomer,
flexible or elastic material, smart composite, SMP and shape
memory alloys (SMAs), as shown in Figure 5. The typical Figure 5 Five categories of 3D printing materials for soft robotics
materials used are listed in Figure 5. Soft materials are essential
in the fabrication of soft robots as they need to be flexible and
elastically deformable. Hence silicone, TPU and hydrogels are
the most commonly printed materials used for soft robotic
applications. These materials are usually used to fabricate
pneumatic actuated soft robots because of the highly
deformable soft body that can bend and expand easily with low
pressure. On the other hand, though PA 12 is intrinsically stiff
and requires a large force to deform, it is still being used to
fabricate pneumatic-actuated soft robots (FESTO, 2012). This
is mainly because when printed in relatively low wall
thicknesses, PA 12 is considerably flexible while possessing
good toughness and fatigue resistance properties. SMP and
smart composite have unique properties as they could have
variable stiffness under different operating conditions. For
instance, the electroactive polymer exhibits large deformation
in response to the electric field (Han et al., 2018a) and printed
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

printers generally have higher resolution and accuracy than the DLP-printed Spot-E elastomer, revealing that the elastomer
FDM and DIW printers. fails after 9 6 3 cycles when subjected to 125% strain.
Similar to conventional fabrication techniques of soft robots 3D printing will also introduce anisotropy into the printed
of multi-steps molding and curing, the repeatability of the parts. The layer-by-layer fabrication approach used by AM
production could also be an important issue for 3D printing techniques would cause the material to have a thermal gradient
techniques due to the elasticity and complex internal channel during printing, resulting in poorer properties across layers.
geometry. Nevertheless, repeatability issues for 3D printing Formation of voids due to improper deposition of soft material
could be alleviated with optimized printing parameters for each will also occur, leading to higher porosities and lower
material used and thereafter building with consistent printing mechanical integrity of the printed parts as compared to the
parameters and the environment. design values. This effect would also become aggravated in
The resolution of the 3D printing technique is often inversely printing soft materials that have relatively low mechanical
proportional to the build speed. One of the solutions to strength.
maintain both the print speed and resolution is to resort to Many of the 3D printed materials, especially photocurable
multi-nozzles and multi arrays of print heads that can deposit materials, are susceptible to UV degradation. Though shore
multiple streams of ink at the same time. Using multiple nozzles hardness of the SLA materials did not show significant change
and print heads also could introduce the opportunity to deposit after UV radiation and humidity aging, Young’s modulus of the
disparate materials for multi-material printing, for instance, SLA material increases significantly, indicating the hardening
functionally graded structures produced by PolyJet (Tibbits, of the material (Tröger et al., 2008). Also, there is significant
2014; Oxman, 2011) and epoxy and polyurethane soft robot shape distortion and color change after humidity and UV aging.
(Jahan Zeb et al., 2016).
3.4 Support structures and materials
3.2 Scalability Printing with soft materials is exceptionally challenging without
Many of the 3D printing techniques introduced earlier have the use of support materials as soft material tends to deform
small build volume and slow printing speed as most of them are under its own weight during the build as the preceding layers
built for research purposes. Despite having the advantage of are unable to support the weight of the following layers.
being able to produce an integrated assembly of multiple Printing support structures or materials increases not only the
components using 3D printing, the allowable build size of the manufacturing complexity and the production time and cost
3D printer might force the designer to create modular but also the risk of damaging the delicate 3D printed
components instead of printing entire soft robots at one go. It is components during support removal (Oropallo and Piegl,
also difficult to scale up the production or print platform as 2016). In addition, as shown in Table 1, bellow and tubular
there are issues with post-processing like curing and removal of structures, which are usually thin-walled and hollow, are some
support material, as well as the trade-off between speed and of the typical designs for 3D printed soft robotics. This poses
resolution. difficulty to the removal of support materials and structures for
hollow structures printed using the FDM/FFF method, as
3.3 Material fatigue, anisotropy and degradation supports are usually removed manually. Various studies have,
Soft robots are generally composed of fluids, gels and other in turn, use the bridging method for FDM/FFF printing to
deformable materials. Materials should be stretchable and have print the top or roof overhanging layers of hollow structures,
relatively small Young’s moduli that match those of soft tissues. without using support structures or support materials (Yap
As soft robots must undergo repeated loading and unloading et al., 2016). Another solution for printing hollow channels or
cycles, the material should have high toughness and resilience overhangs with soft materials is to use sacrificial supports that
and can operate within its elastic regime. In addition to having can be dissolved or chemically removed (Hamidi and Tadesse,
high ultimate strain, the material should possess high resistivity 2020). The support materials that can be dissolved by melting
to failure and fatigue. However, there are limited soft materials or soaking in the solvent bath and the trapped powder within
that can be printed at the current stage and even fewer could the PBF parts could be removed from the inlet opening of the
fulfill these requirements. hollow pneumatic actuators.
The life cycle of an elastomeric soft actuator depends on the
fatigue behavior of the material. Several studies, however, have
4. Potentials
highlighted that 3D printed commercial elastomers commonly
have poor fatigue properties. Jacob and Christopher (2015) 4.1 Sensors
have investigated the fatigue characteristics of PolyJet printed Soft robots require flexible or stretchable sensors for
elastomers and found that with a testing frequency of 1.7 Hz, monitoring and closed-loop controls. Despite the emergence of
the elastomers had closed to 106 cycles of fatigue life under low soft actuators, limited soft robots possess sensing capabilities to
strains of 20% elongation or less. However, the elastomers have enable real-time monitoring and measurement (Yeo et al.,
very poor fatigue properties at higher strains, (102 to 103 cycles 2016). Some of the flexible sensors that have been used in soft
for 40%–60% strain) and have about 70% maximum strain to robots include resistive, magnetic, capacitive and
failure. A study by Dämmer et al. (2019) has also shown that optoelectronic sensors (Li et al., 2017). Currently, most of the
the bellow soft actuators printed by PolyJet have poor fatigue fabrication of flexible sensors within the FEAs are based on
properties. This effect is accentuated when the bonding in embedment of conventional rigid electronics in flexible
between printing layers is weaker for thin-walled bellow substrates (Luo et al., 2017; Jonathan et al., 2003), flexible
actuators. Bryan et al. (2015) carried out the fatigue test on the sensors made up of aqueous ionic conductors (Chossat et al.,
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

2013; Robinson et al., 2015; Larson et al., 2016; Truby et al., the opportunity to explore other design variations that were not
2018), conductive liquid metals (Morrow et al., 2016; Chossat possible using traditional fabrication methods.
et al., 2013), conductive nanoparticle-filled polymer
composites (Pinto et al., 2017; Yeo et al., 2016). Direct 3D 4.3 Four-dimensional printing and shape memory
printing of sensors onto the soft matrices could shorten the polymers
fabrication process and enhance the sensing capabilities. Truby The term “four-dimensional (4D) printing” refers to the
et al. (2018) demonstrated a seamless integration of multiple process of building 3D printed smart materials or components,
ionically conductive and fluidic features within elastomers to using stimuli-responsive composite or multi-material with
create soft somato sensitive actuators via multi-material varying properties, demonstrating physical or chemical change
embedded 3D printing. Multiple complex networks of sensors of state through time upon reacting to stimuli. Many 4D
including curvature, inflation and contact sensors, were directly printing research uses the multi-material capability of PolyJet to
printed into a soft robotic gripper, demonstrating the potentials produce the smart structures including self-evolving structures
of direct 3D printing of sensors into soft actuators. (Raviv et al., 2014) and self-folding structures (Qi et al., 2014;
Ge et al., 2013; Yu et al., 2015; Joanne Ee Mei et al., 2017;
4.2 Silicone printing Tibbits, 2014) by using materials with different hydrophilic and
Soft robots articulate their entire body structure as a continuum thermal properties. Through the controlled and pre-
so the body should be made of highly compliant materials with determined deposition of each material at specific locations, the
low Young’s modulus such as an elastomer to minimize the smart structures can be programed and perform the shape
force required to cause deformation. Silicone is one of the most recovery upon external stimuli is being applied. Qi et al. (2014)
commonly used material for fabricating the soft robot body used the materials with different thermal properties to develop
structure due to its low modulus that permits large elastic 4D printing structures with varying designs including multi-
deformation with very low force (Kim et al., 2013). Silicone, as layer laminates (Ding et al., 2017) and two-layer fiber-
compared to other TPEs available for 3D printing, has embedded laminates (Wu et al., 2016; Ge et al., 2013), as
generally higher strain limit, durability and chemical resistance shown in Figure 6. The design concept of elastomer with fibers
to solvents and is biocompatible. It is also shown that silicone embedment can also be a potential candidate to replace the
could achieve ultrahigh compression and extension, at least existing fiber-reinforced soft actuators, which are usually
four times higher than the other 3D printed elastomers when it fabricated by laborious multi-step curing of elastomer and
is used for producing the same soft robotic actuators (Goswami manual winding of fibers.
et al., 2019). 4D printing can also be achieved through the 3D printing of
Though silicone printing is highly sought after in many SMP. SMPs are programable smart polymeric materials that
industries especially biomedical, silicone 3D printing technique possess the ability to return from a deformed or temporary
is not yet mature. Due to the curing mechanisms and high shape to their original and permanent shape, upon induced by
viscosity of silicones, printing soft materials such as silicone an external stimulus. Recently, there has been substantial
often faces major problems such as the significant slumping progress on developing 3D printable SMPs, including the use
under its own weight when the silicone is not cured of SLA to print single material glassy SMP (Choong et al.,
immediately upon deposition and material accumulation and 2017) and multi-material SMPs (Ge et al., 2016), the use of
clogging at the nozzle (Porter et al., 2017). As a result, it is DLP technique to print SMP with self-healing properties
highly challenging to print silicone with high accuracy and high (Invernizzi et al., 2018) and the use of UV-assisted DIW
repeatability. technique to print elastomeric SMP with self-healing capability
Nevertheless, there has been remarkable progress over the (Kuang et al., 2018) and SMP with nanocomposites that
past few years in the development of silicone 3D printing using possess magnetically guidable properties (Wei et al., 2017).
DIW method (Mannoor et al., 2013; Duoss Eric et al., 2014; There is also recent research to print SMP, graphene PLA
Wu et al., 2017; Schaffner et al., 2018; Morrow et al., 2017; using FDM method onto a paper substrate to create electrical/
Yirmibesoglu et al., 2018; Hamidi and Tadesse, 2020), UV thermal actuated paper actuator that has various sensing
inkjet printing (David et al., 2017; Jahan Zeb et al., 2016), capabilities including angle control, touching and sliding, as
thermal cured inkjet printing (David et al., 2017), binder jetting well as various actuation methods including curve, sharp and
(Liravi et al., 2017), SLA (Kim and Tai, 2016; Wallin et al., pattern folding (Wang et al., 2018). The unique characteristics
2017) and aerosol jetting (Reitelshöfer et al., 2016). There is of SMP and 4D printing could enhance the functionality of soft
also a new freeform reversible embedding technique to print robots by having multi-material smart structures that allow the
silicone without the need for support by extruding catalyst onto designers to have precise control. Instead of using the time-
a bath of silicone oil (Tom Fripp and Green, 2016). Also, based consuming multi-step molding processes to fabricate the fiber-
on the UV inkjet printing process developed by Wacker reinforced soft robotics, it can be easily printed using the multi-
Chemie AG (Ernst Selbertinger et al., 2017), a commercial material printing technique while demonstrating predictable
service provider, ACEO (ACEO, 2018), also offers 3D printing motion upon pressurization (Yap et al., 2018).
service for silicone that is comparable to injection molding.
Carbon, which owns the proprietary CLIP process that is based 4.4 Functionalized materials and structures
on vat photopolymerization, also develops a silicone resin, SIL Several 3D printing methods have been developed to program
30, for printing tear-resistant and biocompatible products the materials’ stimulus-response during printing instead of
(Carbon, 2020). The development of silicone 3D printing will relying on the mechanical programing after fabrication of the
help to streamline the fabrication of soft robots and even create SMPs. Functionalized materials and structures are enabled by
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

Figure 6 Examples of 4D printings

3D printing through programing both the print path, print movements. These smart materials and structures can be used
orientations and the printed material microstructure to achieve directly without the need for additional programing, saving
the shape-changing or shape morphing effect. By varying time and manpower. The functionalized materials could also
the print speed and nozzle diameter in the DIW of hydrogels, provide additional design space for creating shapeshifting or
the extent of shear-induced alignment, and hence, the morphing designs for soft robotics.
magnitude anisotropic swelling can be controlled and predicted
(Sydney Gladman et al., 2016). Similarly, liquid crystal
5. Future outlooks and conclusion
elastomer printed using the DIW technique also exhibited
controlled molecular alignment with the print path, through Various 3D printing techniques have introduced multi-material
intrinsic shear force imposed during ink deposition (Ambulo printing capability by using multiple nozzles or print heads in
et al., 2017). In another study using the DLP technique, when DIW, FDM and material jetting techniques, switching of vats
subjected to different durations of light exposure, different in the vat photopolymerization technique. These have
swelling ratios were produced in the hydrogels, generating demonstrated the potentials in building functional soft robots
different localized stress for shape morphing within a printed composed of materials with disparate physical, mechanical,
object (Huang et al., 2016). These studies have shown that the electrical, magnetic, optical properties. Another fabrication
material anisotropy as a result of varying printing parameters strategy is to combine different 3D printing technologies to
could be used to generate various controlled motions or direct fabricate all the soft robots’ critical components
 Review of 3D printing processes and materials Rapid Prototyping Journal
Yee Ling Yap, Swee Leong Sing and Wai Yee Yeong

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