{"id":25733,"date":"2016-08-25T13:53:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T17:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=25733"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:09:10","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:09:10","slug":"the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting","title":{"rendered":"The 3D Printed Robots of the Future aren&#8217;t What You Were Expecting&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Admit it, the moment you heard of 3D printing you imagined a giant robot stepping out of a machine. 3D printed robots that walk right out of the printer are coming, but taking an unexpected direction.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As you can imagine, robots are complex machines; each motion typically requires a concert of rigid parts assembled together. Therefore robots would need to be constructed from a variety of materials, including a power source and electrical components as well as extremely accurate mechanical parts.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25734\" alt=\"Soft Robot 3D printed Shapeways\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/giphy-4.gif\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-wp-pid=\"25734\" \/><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">3D printers are fantastic for many things but they still have limitations. One of the current challenges to 3D printing technology is that most machines can only produce a few different materials at once or moving parts have comparatively large tolerances (if they are even possible at all). Currently you can print most of the components for a functioning robot, but you have to make them separately and then assemble afterwards (although some designers have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/product\/HZS37FPWQ\/animaris-geneticus-bellus?optionId=55918949\">figured out how to get around this with our strong and flexible plastic<\/a>). This is exciting but not quite the revolutionary way 3D printing can be imagined as a futuristic, automated way of making.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-25736\" alt=\"Soft Robot 3D printed Shapeways\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/slack-imgs-21.gif\" width=\"599\" height=\"357\" data-wp-pid=\"25736\" \/><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Scientists are already researching solutions. Multiple institutions including Carnegie Mellon, MIT and Harvard are working to create hydraulic mechanics that could walk right out of the printer. The key here is that the robots are designed such that when a liquid is pumped through it, it changes the form of part. By expanding and contracting portions of the robot in a controlled way the robot can move. Therefore, instead of using things like gears, which would need to be assembled, you literally \u201cjust add water\u201d to these robots for it to begin moving.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-25737\" alt=\"Soft Robot 3D printed Shapeways\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/slack-imgs-1-625x351.gif\" width=\"625\" height=\"351\" data-wp-pid=\"25737\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/slack-imgs-1-625x351.gif 625w, https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/slack-imgs-1-400x225.gif 400w, https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/slack-imgs-1-300x168.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As the materials available for 3D printing continue to expand we look forward to designs that rethink the way we approach motion and mechanics. How would you design a 3D printed robot?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Admit it, the moment you heard of 3D printing you imagined a giant robot stepping out of a machine. 3D&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":25734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[489],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-products-and-design"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/giphy-4.gif","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The 3D Printed Robots of the Future aren&#039;t What You Were Expecting... - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Admit it, the moment you heard of 3D printing you imagined a giant robot stepping out of a machine. 3D printed robots that walk right out of the printer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Simon Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Andrew Simon Thomas\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#\/schema\/person\/296cc2b04bcf3ccb8811ad574bb734de\"},\"headline\":\"The 3D Printed Robots of the Future aren&#8217;t What You Were Expecting&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-25T17:53:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-17T16:09:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting\"},\"wordCount\":329,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/giphy-4.gif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Products and Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-3d-printed-robots-of-the-future-arent-what-you-were-expecting\",\"name\":\"The 3D Printed Robots of the Future aren't What You Were Expecting... - 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