Descripción del proyecto
Redes de materiales artificiales, interactivos y autooscilantes
Los materiales dinámicos capaces de percibir cambios en su entorno y responder de algún modo funcional podrían beneficiar enormemente a la ciencia y la ingeniería. El equipo del proyecto ONLINE, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, pretende desarrollar estructuras materiales semejantes a la vida real que se comuniquen entre sí mediante contacto físico, medios fluídicos o haces ópticos. Estos materiales artificiales podrán mantener su movimiento mecánico cuando no estén en equilibrio termodinámico. Aprovechando este concepto de autooscilación, el objetivo de ONLINE es diseñar robots blandos que mantengan su propio movimiento, tomen sus propias decisiones y se adapten a las condiciones de su entorno, sin control humano.
Objetivo
ONLINE aims to develop new concepts of communication between inanimate materials.
What is meant by communication? In biological context, communication refers to interactive behaviour of one organism affecting the current or future behaviour of another. In the context of bioinspired materials, ONLINE will develop life-like material structures that communicate with each other via physical contact, fluidic medium, or optical beams. These inanimate materials will be coupled to form networks that communicate autonomously through light.
How to make them? The core concept behind the communicative materials is self-oscillatory (self-sustained) motions in light-responsive liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs). Self-oscillation is a responsive structure that can self-sustain its own mechanical motion in a constant energy field. It captures the key concepts of living organisms, i.e. functioning out of thermodynamic equilibrium and energy dissipation. My goal is to scale down the self-oscillator concepts to the micro-scale and realize soft material robots that can communicate.
Why is this important? There exists an increasing need for artificial materials that can interact, alike biological systems. However, all the dynamic features of state-of-the-art responsive materials are based on internal material properties, and making individual materials interact with each other is a huge challenge. ONLINE proposes three new model systems for material communication: (I) Microscopic walker swarm, in which the locomotion and patterns of interactions between individuals can be fully programmed; (II) Cilia array that move cooperatively and self-regulate the fluidics at low Reynolds numbers; (III) Homeostasis-like light-communicating coupled network that provides a full set of tunable parameters to mimic the complexity of biological oscillators.
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencescondensed matter physicssoft matter physics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticssoft robotics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsswarm robotics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicssolid mechanics
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringliquid crystals
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Institución de acogida
33100 Tampere
Finlandia