TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Smart Transformers Shape-Shift via Programmable Matter

R. Colin Johnson | Date: 07-09-10 | Comments

A Harvard/MIT team has harnessed the ancient art of origami and programmed it into smart robotic sheets that can fold into nearly any shape.

Called "programmable matter" by the research team at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), single thin sheets have been constructed from hinged triangular sections that can autonomously fold and refold to transform into different origami shapes�from an airplane to a boat.

While it sounds easy in concept, the execution earned a pair of electrical engineers�Robert Wood from Harvard and Daniela Rus from MIT�bragging rights for an article in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Also consulting on the project was EE professor Erik Demaine, an expert on computerized origami.

The 32-tile sheet (left) of programmable matter is capable of achieving two distinct shapes: a "boat" (center) and an "airplane" (right).

"We are creating multi-functional materials with embedded sensing, actuation, communication, and computation," states the research overview for Harvard's Microbiotics Laboratory. "Our programmable matter sheets are currently self-reconfigurable and capable of forming multiple user-defined structural components and objects."

Programmable matter was invented back in 1991 by MIT researcher Margolus Norman with Boston University's Tommaso Toffoli, whose seminal paper appeared the same year as Terminator 2�the movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a conventional robot pitted against a reconfigurable robot cast in liquid programmable matter. Since then, several theoretical frameworks for programmable matter have been described, notably Carnegie Mellon University's "claytronics," which has been developed into various prototypes using catoms (claytronic atoms).

The Harvard/MIT proof-of-concept demonstration, on the other hand, is the first to show how a repetitive pattern of interconnected electro-mechanical devices on a mechatronic sheet can reorganize into different shapes depending on the instructions communicated among their independent foldable components. The researchers envision a plethora of future applications of their programmable matter technology, such as a water glass that changes size to adapt to the amount of liquid present in it, or a universal tool that can reconfigure into different sized wrenches.

Composed of individual composite tiles connected by elastomer joints, each triangular component makes use of integral motorized actuators that trigger each other in sequence to realize the different possible shapes into which it can fold. The demonstration sheet was composed of 32 triangular tiles that the researchers triggered into two alternative shapes.

To eliminate the need for centralized control with a computer, the researchers devised a system of conductive stickers that could be preapplied to the tiles, each of which contains the circuitry to direct the components to assemble into the desired configuration. After application of all the stickers, a single jolt of electricity causes the sheet to autonomously fold into the programmed shape, which it retains with magnetic latches.

Other contributors to this endeavor included Elliot Hawkes and Hiroto Tanaka, both at Harvard; and Byoung Kwon An, Nadia Benbernou, Sangbae Kim and Erik Dermaine, all at MIT.

Funding was provided by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Watch videos of the technology here and here.