Project
On the Processing of Self-healing Polymers, Composites and Blends for (Soft) Robotics
The aim of this thesis is to applicate additive manufacturing techniques to advance in the development of self-healing soft robotics actuators. The research approach taken in this project is founded on these major objectives: - Design, sin thesis and characterization of self-healing materials based on thermoreversible covalent networks for use in additive manufacturing, including the very important design of the rheokinetics of these SH materials. - Development of models describing reaction kinetics, network formation and disbanding, and ultimately the time-and temperature dependent visco-elastic behavior. - Development of additive manufacturing methods (this thesis is going to be focused on the Selective Laser Sintering technique) for SH thermoreversible covalent networks, dedicated to self-healing components for soft robotic applications. - Development of self-healing robotics demonstrators to validate the developed concepts.