MIT News breed · Wetenschap

MIT Engineers Develop Modular System for Shape-Changing Smart Devices

MIT researchers have created a novel system of 3D-printed modular components called "bifur-circuits" that allows for the construction of reconfigurable smart devices. These components maintain electrical connections regardless of the structure's shape, enabling devices to sense their configuration and adapt to different functions.

This electrical modularity facilitates the design of interactive devices that can intrinsically sense their shape without external wiring. Potential applications include assistive furniture that adjusts to patient needs or robotic grippers that reconfigure for various tasks.

The bifur-circuits are a type of mechanical metamaterial, offering more configuration possibilities than traditional structures. Researchers demonstrated a chair that transforms into a table with storage and can flatten, sensing its configuration to display messages.

These metamaterials could also be used for adaptive antennas that change shape to adjust communication and sensing frequencies in response to environmental conditions, eliminating the need for bulky mechanical parts.

Mechanical metamaterials are programmable, repeating units that form complex shapes. The new bifur-circuits expand on prior work with auxetic metamaterials, which could only form a limited number of fixed states. Bifur-circuits leverage mechanical bifurcation, a sudden change in behavior at a tipping point, to create a significantly larger number of stable configurations.

The integration of conductive material into the bifur-circuits ensures continuous electrical connections even when the structure is deformed. A key challenge was finding a flexible yet efficient conductive material. The system has been tested for durability, with structures showing no degradation after over 10,000 compressions.

A user-friendly construction and simulation tool was developed to simplify the design process, generating instructions for a multimaterial 3D printer. Demonstrated applications include a shape-sensing chair and a controller that launches video games based on its configuration.

Future applications could involve interactive rehabilitation tools, adaptable robotic grippers, or reconfigurable shelters. The researchers aim to explore more applications, enhance interactivity, and investigate additional metamaterial shapes for creating structures with any desired form, stability, and actuation.

AI-samenvatting op basis van de bron.