Researchers at Virigina Tech have developed a new material, containing a metal skeleton, capable of becoming malleable and then stiffening on demand. They have created several prototype drones that can change shape in order to move in the air or on land.
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Imagine a robot that can change shape as needed, like a soft robot, but whose structure is rigid and capable of supporting weight. Rather than calling on many actuators and jointsresearchers from Virginia Tech succeeded in creating a metamaterial ” with a plasticity reversible. They detailed their invention in the review Science Robotics.
This material is capable of becoming soft to be deformed and then hardening in a fraction of a second. The researchers were inspired by kirigamithe Japanese art of paper cutting, to create structure in a layer of rubber which can easily adopt complex shapes. the rubber wraps lines of a alloy metal that gives its rigidity to the whole and serves asendoskeleton.
With this “metamaterial”, the researchers imagined a flexible robot-drone that can roll and fly. ©Virginia Tech, Science Robotics
A structure that becomes malleable on demand
the metal has the particularity of becoming liquid at 60°C. The researchers included soft heating elements in their metamaterial. Thus the metal can be melted so that the rigid material becomes malleable. Then it cools and becomes hard again once the desired shape has been reached. This operation can be performed in a tenth of a second.
The researchers were thus able to imagine different types of robots, such as a drone with four propellers and four wheels, which can fly when flat, then bends in half to roll on the ground. They have also created a device that functions as a submarinewhich can deform its structure to pick up objects from the bottom of the water.
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