Scientists at the Center for Bits and Atoms of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised tiny building blocks that show a variety of distinctive mechanical properties like the ability to generate a twisting motion when squeezed.
Reports on this recent development from MIT said that these subunits could possibly be assembled by miniature robots into an almost unlimited variety of things that have built-in functionality "including vehicles, large industrial parts, or specialized robots" that can be reassembled repeatedly in many different forms.
The MIT scientists developed four different types of these subunits, and they named them "voxels," which, according to the report, means "a 3-D variation on the pixels of a 2-D image."
Each type of voxel showcases special properties that are not found in usual natural materials. In combination, they can be used to create devices "that respond to environmental stimuli" in foreseeable ways.
The findings, detailing the creation of what was referred to as a "family of discrete 'mechanical metamaterials'" are presented in a paper Science Advances published yesterday. It was authored by Benjamin Jennet, PhD, a recent MIT doctoral graduate, Professor Neil Gershenfeld, and four others.
Collaboration with Car Manufacturing Engineers
To exhibit the real-world potential of these large objects built in what reports described as a "LEGO-like manner" out of the mass-produced voxels the, team of scientists, working in collaboration with Toyota engineers, produced what they described as a "functional super-mileage race car," which they showcased in the streets earlier this year during an international robotics conference.
According to Jenett, they were able to assemble the lightweight, excellently-performing structure in just one month. Building a similar structure through the use of conventional fiberglass construction approaches took them a year to pull together.
During the exhibit, the streets were reportedly slippery because of rain, and the race car "ended up crashing into a barrier.
To everyone's surprise, the lattice-like internal structure of the car deformed, but it bounced back to its original form, absorbing the shock with minimal damage.
Jenett explained, a conventionally-assembled car would likely have been seriously broken if it was made of metal or crushed if composite.
Versatility of the 'Voxels'
The car exhibited provided a vibrant demonstration of the fact that these small parts can actually be used to create functional devices at human-sized measurements.
Furthermore, Gershenfeld emphasized, in the car's structure, "These are not parts connected to something else." The whole object is made out of nothing else but the said parts, aside from the motors and power supply.
Since the voxels are uniform in both size and composition, they can be combined in any manner needed to provide different uses for the product result.
Jenett, who worked on much of this project as this basis for his doctoral thesis explained, the said parts are low-cost, easily created, and quite fast to assemble, and you get all the properties - all in a single system.
All materials, he added, are compatible with each other, and thus, there all these diverse types of extraordinary properties. However, they all play excellently with each other in a similar, measurable, and cost-efficient system.
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