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cultured in a three-dimensional environment they Robert Katzschmann, Professor of Robotics at ETH
can potentially originate new hair follicles or hair Zurich, states:
shafts, and our study builds on this work.”
“ Robots made of soft materials, such as the
The Dean of the Rensselaer School of Engineering, hand we developed, have advantages over
Dr. Shekhar Garde, adds: conventional robots made of metal. Because
they’re soft, there is less risk of injury when they
“ Bringing multichannel 3D-printing to the
work with humans, and they are better suited to
biological realm is opening up exciting
handling fragile goods.”
opportunities that would have been hard to
imagine in the past”. [ Reference: West, P., ‘Robotic Hand complete with
Bones, Ligaments and Tendons’, Electronic Specifier,
[ Reference: West, P., ‘Scientists 3D-print Hair
16th. November 2023 ]
Follicles in Lab-grown Skin’, Electronic Specifier, 16th.
November 2023 ]
New Robotic System helps Stroke Survivors track
Recovery
Robotic Hand 3D-printed
Researchers at the University of Southern
A collaborative effort between ETH Zurich and an
California have developed a robotic system to
American start-up has led to a major advance in collect accurate data on the spontaneous use of
3D-printing technology through the production arms by stroke survivors.
of a 3D-printed robotic hand that is complete
A robotic arm monitors 3D spatial information,
with bones, ligaments and tendons all made from
leveraging machine learning to process the data.
different polymers.
This generates an ‘arm non-use’ assessment of the
Initially 3D-printing technology was limited to fast- patient’s rehabilitation process.
curing plastics, but recent advancements have
The research involved 14 participants, initially right-
allowed it to also be used for slow-curing plastics,
hand dominant prior to having a stroke. These
which offer enhanced elasticity, durability and
participants interacted with the system by placing
robustness. This advancement now means that
their hands on a 3D-printed box with touch sensors,
it is possible to 3D-print complex, durable robotic
which responded to cues supplied by a socially
structures from a variety of high-grade materials
assistive robot (SAR). Significant variability in hand
in a single process, with easy combination of soft,
selection and time taken to reach targets that
elastic and rigid materials allowing for the creation
suggested differences in arm use among stroke
of intricate structures and parts with cavities.
survivors was observed.
In their project the team used slow-curing thiolene
[ Reference: West, P., Electronic Specifier, 4th.
polymers, which have strong elastic properties,
December 2023 ]
and quickly return to their original state following
bending. This was excellent for producing elastic
ligaments in a robotic hand. MIT creates Robotic Replica of Heart Right Ventricle
The 3D-printing process used departed from the Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of
traditional layer-by-layer approach which involves Technology have managed to create a robotic
immediate curing using UV lamps and scraping off replica of a human heart right ventricle using a
surface irregularities. Instead a 3D laser scanner was blend of real heart tissue and synthetic materials.
used to check each printed layer for irregularities.
The right ventricle, one of four chambers of the
A feedback mechanism then compensates for
heart, is less robust than the left ventricle and has
these irregularities when printing the next layer
a complex architecture, pumping deoxygenated
by calculating any necessary adjustments to the blood to the lungs. This is a crucial, but often
amount of material to be printed in real time and
overlooked, function of the cardiac system.
with a very high level of accuracy.
Historically, the intricate mechanics and dynamics
of the right ventricle have posed challenges for
clinical diagnosis and treatment with its delicate
internal structures proving to be difficult to study and
replicate synthetically.
The robotic replica created at MIT using a pig’s right
ventricle, carefully treated to preserve its internal
structures, incorporates a silicone wrapping that
acts as a synthetic myocardial (muscular lining)
with long balloon-like tubes embedded within
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