The Soft Robotics Toolkit: Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles to the Wide Dissemination of Soft-Robotic Hardware

The Soft Robotics Toolkit (SRT) is an open-access website containing detailed information about the design, fabrication, and characterization of soft-robotic components and systems (Figure 1). Soft robotics is a growing field of research concerned with the development of electromechanical technology...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE robotics & automation magazine Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 57 - 64
Main Authors Holland, Donal Padraic, Abah, Colette, Velasco-Enriquez, Marielena, Herman, Maxwell, Bennett, Gareth J., Vela, Emir Augusto, Walsh, Conor James
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.03.2017
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Automation
Design
Educational robots
Fabrication
Hardware
Industrial robots
Instructional materials
Manufacturing engineering
Multimedia
Open source software
Open systems
Robot components
Robotics
Soft robotics
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Summary:The Soft Robotics Toolkit (SRT) is an open-access website containing detailed information about the design, fabrication, and characterization of soft-robotic components and systems (Figure 1). Soft robotics is a growing field of research concerned with the development of electromechanical technology composed of compliant materials or structures. The SRT website hosts design files, multimedia fabrication instructions, and software tutorials submitted by an international community of soft-robotics researchers and designers. In this article, we describe the development of the SRT and some challenges in developing widely disseminated robotic-hardware resources. Our attempts to overcome these challenges in the development of the toolkit are discussed by focusing on strategies that have been used to engage participants ranging from K-12 grade students to robotics research groups. A series of design competitions encouraged people to use and contribute to the toolkit. New fabrication methods requiring only low-cost and accessible materials were developed to lower the entry barriers to soft robotics and instructional materials and outreach activities were used to engage new audiences. We hope that our experiences in developing and scaling the toolkit may serve as guidance for other open robotic-hardware projects.
ISSN:1070-9932
1558-223X
DOI:10.1109/MRA.2016.2639067