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Variable surfaces: Smooth or bumpy on demand
Polymer material produced by a 3-D printer includes soft, flexible material (clear or lighter tone) with particles of hard material (black) embedded, in predetermined arrangements. When the material is compressed, its surface become bumpy in a pattern determined by the hard particles. Credit: Felice Frankel
An MIT team has developed a way of making soft materials, using a 3-D printer, with surface textures that can then be modified at will to be perfectly smooth, or ridged or bumpy, or even to have complex patterns that could be used to guide fluids.
The process, developed using detailed computer simulations, involves a material that is composed of two different polymers with different degrees of stiffness: More rigid particles are embedded within a matrix of a more flexible polymer. When squeezed, the material's surface changes from smooth to a pattern determined by the spacing and shapes of the implanted harder particles; when released, it reverts back to the original form.
The findings, which the researchers say could lead to a new class of materials with dynamically controllable and reversible surface properties, are reported in a paper in the journal Advanced Functional Materials co-authored by MIT graduate student Mark Guttag and Mary Boyce, a former MIT professor of mechanical engineering who is now dean of engineering at Columbia University.
"Depending on the arrangement of the particles, using the same amount of compression, you can get different surface topographies, including ridges and bumps, along the surface," says Guttag, who is pursuing the research as part of his doctoral thesis in mechanical engineering.
The system can produce simple, repetitive patterns of bumps or creases, which could be useful for changing the aerodynamic resistance of an object, or its reflectivity. But by arranging the distribution of the hard particles, it can also be used to produce highly complex surface textures -- for example, creating microfluidic channels to control the movement of liquids inside a chemical or biological detector, Guttag says.
For instance, such a device could have a smooth, tilted surface allowing fluids to flow evenly across its surface -- but with the added ability, on demand, to create raised sections and depressions that would separate the flow of liquids.
Surface textures can be important in a variety of applications, including camouflage, making surfaces that repel or attract water, controlling the motion and turbulence of fluids, and limiting the buildup of organisms on surfaces such as ship hulls. There are many ways to produce patterning as a fixed, unvarying surface, but for some uses -- including drag reduction and camouflage -- changeable and nonuniform textures could have added benefit.
"There are no previous techniques that provide comparable flexibility for creating dynamically and locally tunable and reversible surface changes," Guttag and Boyce write in their paper.
Because the system is "all geometry driven," Guttag says -- based on the shapes and spacing of materials with different degrees of flexibility -- "it could be scaled to all different sizes, and the same principles should work."
While this research used physical pressure to control texture, the same design principles could be used to modify materials using other stimuli -- such as through application of an electric charge, or by changing temperature or humidity, Guttag adds.
Using embedded particles that are elongated instead of round could also allow for the creation of surface textures that are asymmetrical. This could, for example, create surfaces that have high friction in one direction but are slippery in another, allowing a passive means of controlling how things move over that surface.
The initial development of the system was done using computer simulations, which were then validated by making 3-D-printed versions of several of the designs. The surface patterns were produced when the soft printed materials were compressed closely matched those seen in the simulations, Guttag says.
The project was funded through a cooperative agreement between the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and MIT.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by David L. Chandler. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Mark Guttag, Mary C. Boyce. Locally and Dynamically Controllable Surface Topography Through the Use of Particle-Enhanced Soft Composites. Advanced Functional Materials, 2015; DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201501035
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150611114415.htm
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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