Additive Manufacturing of Robotic Metamaterials

Additive manufacturing has shown the promise of freedom of designs, enabling parts<br/>customization and tailorable properties where superior structural performances can be achieved<br/>by a fraction of weight density compared to bulk material. However, it is presently difficult to<br/>combine different materials (structural, dielectric, conducting and ferroelectrics) to create a<br/>complex device with multiple functionalities that responds to multiple stimuli. Unlike biological<br/>systems where functions, including sensing, actuation, and control, are closely integrated, few<br/>materials have comparable system complexity.<br/>In this talk, I will present a suite of new multi-material additive manufacturing processes and<br/>design methodologies to create materials with tailorable structural and functional behaviors. The<br/>structural materials consist of a network of micro-unit cells which collectively influence new<br/>mechanical behaviors (from high-strength, lightweight to toughening) not seen in their native<br/>counterpart. When combined with an electronic and functional phase, these materials turn<br/>themselves into a “robotic material” and is capable of motions with multiple degrees of freedom<br/>motions and amplification of strain in a prescribed direction in response to an electric field (and<br/>vice versa), and thus, programmed motions with self-sensing and feedback control. I will present<br/>the manufacturing and synthesis of these materials, as well as their mechanics and design<br/>methods underpinning their novel behaviors.