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arXiv · 2611.03216

Towards end-to-end co-design for one-shot printable task-specific soft robots

James Wood·André Farinha·Will Browne·Josh Pinskier·Krishna Manaswi Digumarti
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Abstract

Soft robot co-design methods can jointly optimise morphology and control, but the resulting designs are often difficult to manufacture, while manufacturable approaches typically restrict actuator placement or require manual assembly. We present a simulation-based co-design framework that jointly optimises material distribution, pneumatic actuator placement and orientation, and control, while producing designs that can be fabricated monolithically using fused deposition modelling. The framework uses a differentiable 2D plane-stress Material Point Method simulator, incorporating an experimentally validated material model and an empirically derived surrogate model of a 3D-printed inflatable actuator. We demonstrate gradient-based optimisation soft robotic arms for prescribed tip trajectories. Optimised designs are transferred directly from simulation to one-shot monolithic FDM fabrication, with integrated actuators and no post-assembly. Physical experiments demonstrate that the resulting arms reproduce the behaviour predicted in simulation. This framework provides a path from task-level objectives to physically realisable soft robots while retaining substantial freedom over both morphology and actuation.

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James Wood, André Farinha, Will Browne, Josh Pinskier, Krishna Manaswi Digumarti. 2026-11-02. Towards end-to-end co-design for one-shot printable task-specific soft robots. https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03216

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