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).
Transformers for Real?Posted on: 07-09-10 | By: R. Colin JohnsonIn the movies, transformers shape-shift to adapt to environmental circumstances, which these researchers mimic by changing from a "plane" to "boat" shape. Unfortunately, their shapes are just "toy" versions--emulating the way you fold a paper airplane or boat. In the real world, however, there are many less radical transformations to which shape-shifting programable matter might be applied, such as space exploration robots whose "hands" can be reconfigured into different sorts of grippers as needed. Can you think of real world examples to which programmable matter could be applied?
