Relying on Inkbit’s vision-controlled jetting (VCJ) technology, researchers from ETH Zurich, along with the Inkbit team, have 3D printed soft and hard structures in single job to create a robotic hand with bones, ligaments and tendons. The results of the work have been detailed in an article titled “Vision-controlled jetting for composite systems and robots,” published in Nature. However, the hand represents more than just a new development in soft robotics. It is also the culmination of several years of collaboration on Inkbit’s technology. Typically, with photopolymer 3D printers, including traditional inkjetting, curing times are fast and lamps or galvos illuminate a part quickly after depositing, while layers are detached or parts scrape over screens or layers to tidy them up. With slow-curing materials this approach doesn’t work, limiting most photopolymer printing techniques to acrylate-based materials. However, to compensate for irregularities in the deposited materials, VCJ relies on a 3D laser scanning system to feed back information to the jetting process. In turn, the process is able to print slowly curing polymers such as thio-lenes and continuously curing polymers like cured epoxies. Read more: 3dprint.com/...