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A team at Disney Research has developed a new type of 3D printer that can build three-dimensional objects such as teddy bears out of soft fibres such as wool.

The machine looks like a cross between a sewing machine and a 3D printer -- the yarn is built up in layers to create a sort of felt.


This approach to creating soft objects can allow for high levels of customisation and rapid prototyping.

The project was headed up by Scott Hudson from Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute and supported by Disney Research. Hudson said in a press statement that he was extending the set of materials available for 3D printing, adding that this material is designed for making "things that are held close". This could be scarves, hats, teddy bears or soft robots.

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Disney Research

While the resulting bear in the embedded video might not be much to look at, it demonstrates how completely soft objects can be created directly from computerised designs. Unlike conventional 3D printers which use extruded melted plastic, this 3D printer deposits layers of yarn, using a needle that repeatedly pierces the yarn to drag down fibres into the layers below, entangling it in order to create a unified mass.


In order to allow for joints in the printed objects, Hudson experimented with leaving small gaps in the geometric model of the toy -- these small voids allowed for more flexibility in some places in the bear. To increase stiffness, he then placed a layer of low stretch fabric -- nylon organza mesh -- within the print.

The fabric was then felted into the body of the object, providing a sort of "skeleton" for the final design. Using a combination of these techniques Hudson could create a range of stiffness in objects depending on what was required.

In order to develop soft robotic toys with articulated joints, Hudson experimented with 3D-printed plastic components embedded with a nylon mesh, onto which the yarn could be overlaid. He experimented with creating a teddy bear arm that bends at the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints thanks to a servo motor and "tendon wire", which retracts and extends. Hudson demonstrates this with a cute moving teddy bear arm complete with plastic paw pads.

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Disney Research

In the research paper, Hudson says this work is "only a beginning" and that more work needs to be done to make the resulting felted objects more robust. "These objects exhibit reasonable strength for forces applied laterally to layers. However, they are less robust to forces perpendicular to layers, tending to pull the layers apart. To improve robustness in that direction in future work we may consider injecting very small amounts of a flexible adhesive in conjunction with the felting process in order to more permanently bind felted fibres between layers."

It will take time, however, to find an appropriate adhesive that can provide stickiness without affecting the softness of the resulting object.


Another challenge is that the technique isn't quite as precise as some other additive manufacturing processes.

In other Disney Research news, post doctoral researcher Yoshio Ishiguro has developed a way to 3D-print small loudspeakers in any shape -- from spirals to ducks. The speakers can reproduce sound of around 60 decibels, have no moving parts, and run off batteries. Each speaker contains an electrode plate and a thin conductive diaphragm, separated by a layer of air.

When a high voltage is applied to the electrode, the electrostatic attraction distorts the diaphragm to reproduce sound.