DOI: 10.13130/rd_unimi/fjpxki
title: Sensor-Integrated TPU Soft Actuators Fabricated by Foam Additive Manufacturing

description: &lt;h3&gt;Dataset description&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;
This Dataverse record accompanies the manuscript
&lt;strong&gt;“Sensor-Integrated TPU Soft Actuators Fabricated by Foam Additive Manufacturing”&lt;/strong&gt;
(Detry, Di Maio, Tammaro, Squillace) and provides the tracking videos, processed outputs, and MATLAB
code used to extract and visualize finger/phalanx motion trajectories during actuation tests.
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;
The paper introduces a manufacturing route to fabricate &lt;em&gt;sensor-integrated&lt;/em&gt; soft actuators directly from
carbon-black-filled thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) using &lt;strong&gt;Foam Additive Manufacturing (FAM)&lt;/strong&gt;.
In FAM, CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; is physically solubilized in the filament and released during extrusion, generating a
homogeneous microcellular morphology that simultaneously reduces density (up to &lt;strong&gt;42.2%&lt;/strong&gt;) and
stabilizes the electromechanical (piezoresistive) response under deformation.
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;
To support the device-level evaluation, this dataset contains the motion-tracking material used in the
&lt;strong&gt;finger assembly testing&lt;/strong&gt; section:
cropped and annotated videos with tracked points, MATLAB &lt;code&gt;.mat&lt;/code&gt; files storing ROI/cropping parameters
and trajectories, and publication-ready trajectory overlays exported as &lt;code&gt;.eps&lt;/code&gt;.
The scripts allow full reproduction of the workflow from a raw video to the final trajectories figure.
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h4&gt;What is included&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Processed tracking videos&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;code&gt;.avi&lt;/code&gt;) showing the ROI and tracked point trajectories.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trajectory data&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;code&gt;.mat&lt;/code&gt;) including crop parameters (&lt;code&gt;x, y, width, height&lt;/code&gt;), initial points, and tracked trajectories across frames.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trajectory figures&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;code&gt;_trajectories.eps&lt;/code&gt;) for publication-quality visualization.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MATLAB code&lt;/strong&gt; (&lt;code&gt;CropVideo.m&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;track4P.m&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;TrajectoryPlot.m&lt;/code&gt;) required to reproduce the tracking pipeline.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h4&gt;Reproducibility notes&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Point selection (4 points) and ROI selection are interactive and therefore user-dependent.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;To process a new video: run &lt;code&gt;CropVideo.m&lt;/code&gt; &rarr; &lt;code&gt;track4P.m&lt;/code&gt; &rarr; &lt;code&gt;TrajectoryPlot.m&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Run names encode specimen/test identifiers and conditions (e.g., &lt;em&gt;Catch&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;NoCatch&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Release_Cut&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;V2&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h4&gt;Recommended citation&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
Please cite the associated manuscript and this Dataverse dataset (use the DOI assigned by Dataverse once published).
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Keywords:&lt;/strong&gt; Foam Additive Manufacturing; conductive TPU; soft actuators; piezoresistive sensing; soft robotics; motion tracking; MATLAB
&lt;/p&gt;