Existing fluidic soft logic gates for the control of soft robots either rely on extensive manual fabrication processes or expensive printing techniques. In our work, we explore Fused Deposition Modeling for creating fully 3D printed fluidic logic gates. We print a soft bistable valve from thermoplastic polyurethane using a desktop FDM printer. We introduce a new printing nozzle for extruding tubing. Our fabrication strategy reduces the production time of soft bistable valves from 27 hours with replica molding to 3 hours with a FDM printer. Our rapid and cost-effective fabrication process for fluidic logic gates seeks to democratize fluidic circuitry for the control of soft robots.

翻译：现有的用于控制软体机器人的流体软体逻辑门要么依赖大量手工制造过程，要么依赖昂贵的打印技术。在本研究中，我们探索了利用熔融沉积成型技术制造完全3D打印的流体逻辑门。我们使用桌面级FDM打印机，以热塑性聚氨酯为材料打印了一种软体双稳态阀。我们引入了一种用于挤出软管的新型打印喷嘴。我们的制造策略将软体双稳态阀的生产时间从复制成型的27小时缩短至FDM打印机的3小时。这种快速且经济高效的流体逻辑门制造工艺旨在推动用于软体机器人控制的流体电路技术普及化。