Kirigami Gripper (Soft Robotics)

This is a Kirigami inspired gripper created by Boston University. I saw the original YouTube video and wanted to 3d print/ try my own. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UerxNyu147g

The 3d printing toolpath makes this gripper a bit weaker than if you were to laser cut it out of a flexible material due to the toolpath voids. The .stl in this post is 0.5 mm high which is the thickness I tried, but I'd suggest going thicker if desired (1mm or 2mm) for better results (longevity/less prone to tearing after repeated pulling).

This should be printed in a flexible material for results like in the YT video. I would also recommend dialing in your print settings for printing a flex material to ensure you are not under-extruding. Since this gripper get's pulled on at the end linkages to collapse, if you under extrude it will be expected that parts of your print (i.e. subsequent passes on the same layer) will pull apart.

Happy printing!

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