Selection of a suitable additive manufacturing process for soft robotics application using three-way decision-making

authored by: Sudhanshu Gangwar, Prateek Saxena, Naveen Virmani, Tobias Biermann, Carl Steinnagel, Roland Lachmayer
Abstract: Additive manufacturing technology has fostered its significant application in soft robotics fabrication due to the design freedom and ease of realizing complex geometries. The selection of an appropriate additive manufacturing process (out-of-material extrusion, vat photopolymerization, and powder bed fusion) is vital for the fabrication of soft robotics as the process greatly influences the quality of the part further affecting the functionality and service life. These pneumatically actuated robots in their service life are subjected to fatigue loading and handling of very delicate tasks; thus, the porosity (including pores characterization) and surface roughness are two critical quality parameters which should be considered while choosing the fabrication process. In this study, a three-way decision-making (a multi-criteria decision-making tool) approach is implemented for selecting an appropriate additive manufacturing process for the fabrication of high-quality parts for soft robotics applications. The results (ranking of AM processes) obtained using the proposed approach are compared with the conventional decision-making techniques, namely TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), MOORA (Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis), and VIKOR (VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija). The sensitivity analysis carried out in this work also suggests that three-way decision-making is as effective as other MCDM tools and the vat photopolymerization process is the most suitable out of all for fabricating TPU actuators.
Organisation(s): PhoenixD: Photonics, Optics, and Engineering - Innovation Across Disciplines
Institute of Motion Engineering and Mechanism Design
External Organisation(s): Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IITMandi)
Institute of Management Studies (IMS)
Type: Article
Journal: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
Volume: 132
Pages: 2003-2015
No. of pages: 13
ISSN: 0268-3768
Publication date: 05.2024
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Control and Systems Engineering, Software, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science Applications, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-024-13398-x (Access: Closed)