Characterization of Bio-Degradable Materials for Soft Robotics

Soft robots can be environmentally friendly when they have a function to return to the soil, in other words, biodegradability. Bio-degradable materials change their properties as time goes, because of microbial degradation. This would lead to difficulties in which the same input does not result in the identical output, and robots stop functioning even before finishing the mission. The goal of our research is to establish design and control methods that take account of the degradable process of soft robots made of bio-degradable materials. In this contribution, we report on our ongoing study focused on the characterization of a soft robotic bio-degradable material. A gelatin-glycerol mixture is employed as the base material, on which the bio-degradation process is applied, followed by tensile testing. The results show that the mechanical properties, elongation at break and Young's modulus, change with the decomposition time, and indicate the need of consideration of degradable process for designing soft robots.