This flat structure morphs into shape of a human face when temperature changes

MIT News  September 30, 2019
Shape-morphing structured materials have the ability to transform a range of applications. However, their design and fabrication remain challenging due to the difficulty of controlling the underlying metric tensor in space and time. A team of researchers in the US (MIT, Draper Laboratory, Boston University) exploited a combination of multiple materials, geometry and 4D printing to create structured heterogeneous lattices that overcome this problem. The printable ink’s elastic modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion can be precisely controlled. Multiplexed bilayer ribs were designed to control extrinsic curvature and enable wide range of 3-dimensional shape changes in response to temperature. They designed and printed planar lattices that morph into frequency-shifting antennae and a human face, demonstrating functionality and geometric complexity, respectively. The technology can be readily extended to other stimuli-responsive materials and different 2D and 3D cell designs to create scalable, reversible, shape-shifting structures with unprecedented complexity. Down the road, the technique may be used to design deployable structures that unfurl and inflate in response to changes in temperature or other ambient conditions, structures can be used as stents or scaffolds for artificial tissue, or as deformable lenses in telescopes…read more. TECHNIAL ARTICLE

A lattice structure, originally printed flat, has morphed into the outline of a human face after changing the surrounding temperature. Perspective view, top view, and side view of transformed lattice, approximately 160mm tall. Credit: Lori K. Sanders.

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