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This study aims to extend the known design guidelines for the polymer-based fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing process with the focus on function-integrated components, specifically optomechanical parts. The potential of this approach is demonstrated by manufacturing function-integrated optomechanics for a low-power solid-state laser system.

For the production of function-integrated additively manufactured optomechanics using the FFF process, essential components and subsystems have been identified for which no design guidelines are available. This includes guidelines for integrating elements, particularly optics, into a polymer structure as well as guidelines for printing functional threads and ball joints. Based on these results, combined with prior research, a function-integrated low-power solid-state laser optomechanic was fabricated via the FFF process, using a commercial 3D printer of the type Ultimaker 3. The laser system's performance was assessed and compared to a reference system that employed commercial optomechanics, additionally confirming the design guidelines derived from the study.

Based on the design goal of function integration, the existing design guidelines for the FFF process are systematically extended. This success is demonstrated by the fabrication of an integrated optomechanic for a solid-state laser system.

Based on these results, scientists and engineers will be able to use the FFF process more extensively and benefit from the possibilities of function-integrated manufacturing.

Extensive research has been published on additive manufacturing of optomechanics. However, this research often emphasizes only cost reduction and short-term availability of components by reprinting existing parts. This paper aims to explore the capabilities of additive manufacturing in the production of function-integrated components to reduce the number of individual parts required, thereby decreasing the workload for system assembly and leading to an innovative production process for optical systems. Consequently, where needed, it provides new design guidelines or extends existing ones and verifies them by means of test series.

The “chiralisation” of Euclidean polygonal tessellations is a novel, recent method which has been used to design new auxetic metamaterials with complex topologies and improved geometric versatility over traditional chiral honeycombs. This paper aims to design and manufacture chiral honeycombs representative of four distinct classes of 2D Euclidean tessellations with hexagonal rotational symmetry using fused-deposition additive manufacturing and experimentally analysed the mechanical properties and failure modes of these metamaterials.

Finite Element simulations were also used to study the high-strain compressive performance of these systems under both periodic boundary conditions and realistic, finite conditions. Experimental uniaxial compressive loading tests were applied to additively manufactured prototypes and digital image correlation was used to measure the Poisson’s ratio and analyse the deformation behaviour of these systems.

The results obtained demonstrate that these systems have the ability to exhibit a wide range of Poisson’s ratios (positive, quasi-zero and negative values) and stiffnesses as well as unusual failure modes characterised by a sequential layer-by-layer collapse of specific, non-adjacent ligaments. These findings provide useful insights on the mechanical properties and deformation behaviours of this new class of metamaterials and indicate that these chiral honeycombs could potentially possess anomalous characteristics which are not commonly found in traditional chiral metamaterials based on regular monohedral tilings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors have analysed for the first time the high strain behaviour and failure modes of chiral metamaterials based on Euclidean multi-polygonal tessellations.

Vision, audition, olfactory, tactile and taste are five important senses that human uses to interact with the real world. As facing more and more complex environments, a sensing system is essential for intelligent robots with various types of sensors. To mimic human-like abilities, sensors similar to human perception capabilities are indispensable. However, most research only concentrated on analyzing literature on single-modal sensors and their robotics application.

This study presents a systematic review of five bioinspired senses, especially considering a brief introduction of multimodal sensing applications and predicting current trends and future directions of this field, which may have continuous enlightenments.

This review shows that bioinspired sensors can enable robots to better understand the environment, and multiple sensor combinations can support the robot’s ability to behave intelligently.

The review starts with a brief survey of the biological sensing mechanisms of the five senses, which are followed by their bioinspired electronic counterparts. Their applications in the robots are then reviewed as another emphasis, covering the main application scopes of localization and navigation, objection identification, dexterous manipulation, compliant interaction and so on. Finally, the trends, difficulties and challenges of this research were discussed to help guide future research on intelligent robot sensors.