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Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing, and particularly three-dimensional (3D) printing has found its path in almost every research sector from biomedical science to robotic industry, from macro scale products to micro and nano scale mechanisms, and from highly rigid metals to soft biological materials. This Special Issue will focus on an interdisciplinary research platform of 3D printing of adaptive dynamic structures, also known as 4-dimensional (4D) printing, with highly versatile applications in mesoscale and macroscale platforms including microfluidics, wearable electronics agricultural applications and medical assisted soft robots.

We are the guest editors for a Special Issue entitled “3D-printed Soft Robots and 4D printing: Modeling, Fabrication, and Control” to be published in the open access journal Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417; IF: 2.217, Q1 in Engineering). Given your renowned expertise and significant contributions to this field, we would like to invite you to contribute in this special issue.

Dr. Ali Zolfagharian
Dr. Mahdi Bodaghi
Prof. Akif Kaynak
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Soft robotics
4D printing
3D printed sensors
3D printed actuators
Finite element analysis
Machine learning modeling
Control

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 7036 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Infill Patterns Generated by CAD and FDM 3D Printer on Surface Roughness and Tensile Strength Properties

by Mohammadreza Lalegani Dezaki, Mohd Khairol Anuar Mohd Ariffin, Ahmad Serjouei, Ali Zolfagharian, Saghi Hatami and Mahdi Bodaghi

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(16), 7272; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11167272 - 07 Aug 2021

Cited by 48 | Viewed by 5886

Abstract

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a capable technology based on a wide range of parameters. The goal of this study is to make a comparison between infill pattern and infill density generated by computer-aided design (CAD) and FDM. Grid, triangle, zigzag, and concentric patterns with various densities following the same structure of the FDM machine were designed by CAD software (CATIA V5^®). Polylactic acid (PLA) material was assigned for both procedures. Surface roughness (SR) and tensile strength analysis were conducted to examine their effects on dog-bone samples. Also, a finite element analysis (FEA) was done on CAD specimens to find out the differences between printing and simulation processes. Results illustrated that CAD specimens had a better surface texture compared to the FDM machine while tensile tests showed patterns generated by FDM were stronger in terms of strength and stiffness. In this study, samples with concentric patterns had the lowest average SR (Ra) while zigzag was the worst with the value of 6.27 µm. Also, the highest strength was obtained for concentric and grid samples in both CAD and FDM procedures. These techniques can be useful in producing highly complex sandwich structures, bone scaffolds, and various combined patterns to achieve an optimal condition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D-Printed Soft Robots and 4D Printing: Modeling, Fabrication, and Control)

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Review

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19 pages, 2340 KiB

Open AccessReview

Control-Based 4D Printing: Adaptive 4D-Printed Systems

by Ali Zolfagharian, Akif Kaynak, Mahdi Bodaghi, Abbas Z. Kouzani, Saleh Gharaie and Saeid Nahavandi

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(9), 3020; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10093020 - 26 Apr 2020

Cited by 68 | Viewed by 8335

Abstract

Building on the recent progress of four-dimensional (4D) printing to produce dynamic structures, this study aimed to bring this technology to the next level by introducing control-based 4D printing to develop adaptive 4D-printed systems with highly versatile multi-disciplinary applications, including medicine, in the form of assisted soft robots, smart textiles as wearable electronics and other industries such as agriculture and microfluidics. This study introduced and analysed adaptive 4D-printed systems with an advanced manufacturing approach for developing stimuli-responsive constructs that organically adapted to environmental dynamic situations and uncertainties as nature does. The adaptive 4D-printed systems incorporated synergic integration of three-dimensional (3D)-printed sensors into 4D-printing and control units, which could be assembled and programmed to transform their shapes based on the assigned tasks and environmental stimuli. This paper demonstrates the adaptivity of these systems via a combination of proprioceptive sensory feedback, modeling and controllers, as well as the challenges and future opportunities they present. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D-Printed Soft Robots and 4D Printing: Modeling, Fabrication, and Control)

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