A new "soft" substance may enable ground drones to transform into flying marvels.
According to a university news release, a research team at Virginia Tech has invented a novel material that can be morphed at whim and utilised to change a ground vehicle into an airborne vehicle.
The study team, lead by Assistant Professor Michael Bartlett, was inspired by nature, where living creatures continuously alter their shape to fulfil different roles and then revert to their original state. The human muscle is an excellent illustration of how it undergoes several form changes during the day.
Rather than developing soft robots capable of performing a single function, the team sought to produce a material that was flexible enough to be moulded into a new shape yet hard enough to construct a machine capable of performing several duties.
To the rescue, Kirigami
Interestingly, the team discovered their solution through the Japanese art form of kirigami, which involves cutting things from paper rather than folding them as in origami. The researchers discovered that rubber and composite materials had the same strength as kirigami designs but required a material capable of being transformed at whim.
As a result, they incorporated an endoskeleton made of a low melting point alloy (LMPA) within the rubber skin. Additionally, when heated, the outer rubber layer shielded the metal from splitting and bending into an undesired form. However, the material had to be reshaped as well. To aid this reversal, the scientists placed soft heaters adjacent to the LMPA mesh, which could convert the metal to a liquid state at a low temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius), restoring the structure to its former shape.
The researchers discovered that they could not only create a broad variety of intricate designs but also modify them rather fast utilising this method. Additionally, the rubber exoskeleton aided in "healing" the material in the event that it fractured during their testing. All they needed to do was heat the LMPA, and it would immediately revert to its original shape upon cooling.
Applications in the future
The researchers combined their newly developed material with motors, onboard power, and control systems to create a working land drone capable of morphing into an airborne drone autonomously. Additionally, the team developed a submersible drone capable of morphing to recover things from the bottom of a body of water.
Apart from that, the team is optimistic that its material may be utilised to develop machines and soft robots capable of performing a variety of tasks, exhibiting enhanced resilience due to their capacity to self-heal, and finding new uses in wearable devices.