Description du projet
Des réseaux de matériaux artificiels, interactifs et auto-oscillants
Les matériaux dynamiques capables de détecter les changements au sein de leur environnement et d’y répondre de manière fonctionnelle pourraient grandement bénéficier à la science et à l’ingénierie. Le projet ONLINE, financé par le CER, vise à développer des structures matérielles réalistes qui communiquent entre elles par le biais d’un contact physique, de milieux fluides ou de faisceaux optiques. Ces matériaux artificiels seront capables de maintenir leur mouvement mécanique lorsqu’ils ne sont pas en équilibre thermodynamique. En s’appuyant sur ce concept d’auto-oscillation, l’objectif d’ONLINE est de concevoir des robots mous qui conservent leur propre mouvement, prennent leurs propres décisions et s’adaptent à leur environnement, sans contrôle humain.
Objectif
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.
Champ scientifique
- 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
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Institution d’accueil
33100 Tampere
Finlande