INNOVATION Sept-Oct 2019

be fancy or humanoid,” says Kim. “It could be a small vehicle with one big hand that can be pushed into the soil to give an immediate reading, so farmers won’t have to wait a week to get information back from a lab.” Kim also sees soft robots with sensing abilities playing a major role in health care in the future. Recently, he and his

That 3-D printing can be made eco-friendly is an added bonus. Kim’s SFU research team is currently working with Swiss researchers to develop biodegradable 3-D printed wireless Internet-of-Things sensors made out of a wood-derived cellulose material instead of plastics or polymers. “These sensors can wirelessly transmit data during their life and

team worked on developing 3-D-printed ultra-thin, flexible, stretchable, and highly sensitive sensors that could comfortably be worn by a human patient for a long period. In collaboration with Vancouver-based industry partner NTS Research, the SFU group created a sensor that could measure the calcium ion in sweat. By incorporating low-cost radio-frequency identification technology that transmits data wirelessly, the sensor enabled doctors to monitor the effects of calcium supplements aimed at increasing bone mineral density in people with osteoporosis. Similar sensors could help doctors monitor ongoing health treatments for chronic diseases, like diabetes, and the effectiveness of therapies for issues like osteoarthritis. “If we can incorporate the same sort of sensors into soft robots that interact with humans,” says Kim, “they will be able to use temperature and chemicals to detect how humans are feeling,” both physically and mentally, “and get the information to caregivers right away. And with 3-D printing, we will be able to customize each robot, add functionality to a 3-D robot’s performance, to match with each individual.” It’s that ability to customize, Kim believes, that will end up being the “cash cow” that backers of 3-D technology have been searching for over the past 10 or 20 years. Most 3-D printing today focuses on mass production but “3-D printing is not just for prototyping,” he says. “The real application is customization. There is no other manufacturing process that allows you to make what you design so easily and so cost-effectively.” A researcher or manufacturer can make minor iterations and adjustments without using up major amounts of time or materials.

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