{"id":6486,"date":"2022-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=6486"},"modified":"2022-03-23T10:17:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T09:17:31","slug":"transformers-activate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/03\/10\/transformers-activate\/","title":{"rendered":"Transformers\u2026 activate!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

INNOVATIONS<\/strong>
PREPARE YOURSELF FOR TOMORROW<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Transformers\u2026 activate!<\/h2>\n\n

Shape-shifting tech inspired by kirigami allows robot to change shape and function<\/p>\n\n

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This new soft robot (pictured above) can morph from a four-wheeled car into a drone and back again, with the application of a little heat.<\/p>\n\n

To create this bot, a team at Virginia Tech needed to develop an entirely new type of flexible material.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhen we started the project, we wanted a material that could do three things: change shape, hold that shape, and then return to the original configuration, and to do this over many cycles,\u201d says Michael Bartlett, an assistant professor who led the team.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cOne of the challenges was to create a material that was soft enough to dramatically change shape, yet rigid enough to create adaptable machines that can perform different functions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

To achieve this, the team took inspiration from kirigami \u2013 the Japanese art of making shapes out of paper by cutting and folding. Kirigami differs from origami, which only uses folding. It is popular among engineers since it gives paper the ability to support many times its own weight with the help of some smart geometry.<\/p>\n\n

The final design was a kirigami-inspired grid of repeating geometric patterns, made of metal alloy. The alloy used was chosen for its low melting point of 60\u00b0C. Tendril-like heaters were woven around this frame so that an operator could apply heat to melt the metal and turn the material back to its original shape. The metal grid was then embedded into a rubber skin. The device could change and fix into place in less than one-tenth of a second, and the alloy was strong enough to repeatedly retain its desired shape, despite being stretched every time it transformed.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThese kirigami-inspired cuts, combined with the unique properties of the materials, were really important to morph, fix into shape rapidly, then return to the original shape,\u201d said Dohgyu Hwang, a graduate student who co-authored the paper.<\/p>\n\n

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    Edward Barron, Michael Bartlett and Dohgyu Hwang with their material<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
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    The flexible material can quickly morph into various shapes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
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    It is comprised of a metal alloy grid embedded in rubber, with tendril-like heaters woven within it<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n

    The material was used to create various complex shapes, including a car (pictured at the top of this page) that could rapidly transform into a drone.<\/p>\n\n

    Looking to the future, this technology has clear potential. As well as a car-to-drone transformer, the team produced a prototype submarine that could retrieve objects from an aquarium by morphing its belly around a target item.<\/p>\n\n