A team of biologists and engineers have evolved their micro-scale 3D printing technology to add a fourth dimension: time. Inspired by natural structures like plants, which shift shape in response to environmental stimuli, the Harvard University team has unveiled 4D-printed hydrogel composite structures that change in the presence of water.

The orchid-shaped structure is printed with a hydrogel composite ink containing aligned cellulose fibrils, which enable anisotropic swelling. A mathematical model predicts the precise shape transformations in advance.

“This work represents an elegant advance in programmable materials assembly, made possible by a multidisciplinary approach,” said Jennifer Lewis, senior author on the new study. “We have now gone beyond integrating form and function to create transformable architectures.”

In nature, the tissue composition and microstructures of flowers and plants allow environmental changes, like tendrils, leaves and flowers folding and unfolding in response to wind, light and sun. These 4D-printed forms use similar processes, aligning elements during printing to facilitate stiffness and flexibility.

The new method opens up new potential applications for 4D printing technology, including smart textiles, soft electronics, biomedical devices, and tissue engineering.

“Using one composite ink printed in a single step, we can achieve shape-changing hydrogel geometries containing more complexity than any other technique, and we can do so simply by modifying the print path,” said Gladman. “What’s more, we can interchange different materials to tune for properties such as conductivity or biocompatibility.”

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We were a little bit freaked out when the first soft-bodied, icky-looking, invertebrate-like crawling robot squirmed its way out of Harvard’s lab and into our nightmares. Now the design has evolved a few generations so that it no longer needs pneumatic tethers, so it can crawl around in the real world. Oh, and now it’s fire-proof, waterproof, freeze-proof, and acid-proof – so there’s about a 50/50 chance that future generations will be completely impervious to all of our defenses. Thanks, Harvard.

The all-terrain soft bodied robot was developed in Professor George M. Whitesides’ lab and, at first glance, looks kind of like a really ugly toy. Its silicone body is extremely durable, hence its imperviousness to just about anything that the world can throw at it. It keeps on working in subzero temperatures, gets back up after being run over by a car, walks through puddles up to five cm (about two inches), and can withstand 3,000 Kelvin (more than 4,900 Fahrenheit) methane flames for up to 50 seconds.

Besides being virtually indestructible, the rubbery robot can scuttle along surprisingly quickly at speeds up to 18 meters per hour (59 feet per hour). It’s still pneumatically powered, which gives it a good deal of strength: it can dead-lift 8 kg (17.6 pounds) or carry 3.4 kg while in motion. It can run for about two hours on battery power, though it has no sensors or smart capabilities built in.

Thankfully for us, the current version of the soft-bodied nightmarebot does have a weak spot built in: its controller, batteries, compressor, and other essential components are carried externally. This means that, while the robot can withstand all of the abuse above, it is still vulnerable if any of those things happen to its electronic bits. The Harvard lab hopes in the future to develop soft components to replace the rigid, vulnerable ones…and then we’ll see a truly indestructible robot worthy of its own movie franchise.

(via: IEEE Spectrum)

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The term “robot swarm” has a rather menacing tone to it, but large groups of tiny robots are on the forefront of robotics research. Working together, hundreds or thousands of little robots could do things that one or two large robots never could. Mike Rubenstein, an engineer at Harvard, was part of the team that invented Kilobots: itty-bitty robots that can be controlled as a swarm with a single command.

The little bots look a lot like the tiny aliens in the movie ‘Batteries Not Included’ (sans the abilities to fly, convey emotions, or tug at heartstrings). They are about the diameter of a quarter and rest on three thin metal legs. Each sports a cute little metal spring on top. Rubenstein’s ingenious method for charging his swarm of 1,024 Kilobots is to push them up against a long charging rack. Two of their legs and the top spring have to touch the rack in order for the bots to recharge.

Once juiced up, the little guys are ready to do the engineers’ bidding. They can be ordered en masse with a single command to take any solid form, though it takes up to 12 hours for them to complete that form. The Kilobots aren’t just an adorable novelty act; they could be used in the future to search collapsed buildings for survivors, scout dangerous territory for military missions, or even act as self-assembling building blocks to form mission-essential equipment in space.

One of the biggest challenges so far has been producing robots that are inexpensive as well as effective. In order for robot swarms to be practical, they have to be affordable in large numbers. In their current form, Kilobots cost around $14 each just in parts. The need to limit the cost also results in the need to limit their functionality, as adding more functions would of course increase the price of each bot. But the Kilobots aren’t intended to be a solution to the question of how to utilize robot swarms; they are simply a step forward in the quest to produce tiny robots that do our bidding on command, and they’re a pretty amazing advance in the robot swarm arena.

(via: PopSci)

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Many of us continue to hold onto the notion that most robots are large, rigid machines that stay in one place and perform one repetitive task. But the landscape of robotics is changing, and quickly. A team of researchers from MIT and Harvard came together to produce a truly impressive prototype robot that is not only small and lithe – it assembles itself, origami-style, before scuttling off.

The origami robots project has been ongoing for a number of years. The researchers were inspired by the way nature seems to use carefully orchestrated folding and unfolding to make near-magic happen every day. They applied the same folding ideas to robots and have developed several that start out flat but self-assemble by folding in strategic ways.

Until now, however, all of their self-assembling ‘bots required some type of human intervention before they could carry out their designated function. Whether it was a crucial fold or simply clicking on a power switch, none of the robots could truly function on their own.

The new prototype is composed of five layers: a copper center laser-etched into an array of electrical leads, two layers of structural paper, and an exterior made of a polymer that folds and holds its shape when heated. Almost all of the robot was fabricated using an ink printer and a laser machine. Hinges in the robot’s body – each equipped with an embedded circuit – are programmed to bend to a certain degree when heated. The robot also contains two motors, two batteries, and a microcontroller.

The robot begins self-assembling ten seconds after a battery is installed, an action that is controlled via an integrated timer. But the research team says that the assembly could be activated by a number of environmental conditions like temperature or pressure. After the robot folds, bends, and pops into the third dimension, it automatically scuttles away. Future generations of the self-assembling robot prototype could be used to furnish made-to-order household machines, perform searches in hard-to-reach areas, or even to send lightweight, inexpensive, pop-up satellites into space.

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For years, solar power has been the go-to alternative energy source when we think about moving away from fossil fuels. A team at Harvard has a revolutionary new idea: harvesting the infrared energy released by the Earth itself. Our planet releases millions of gigawatts of infrared radiation into space every day, including the heat produced by all of the warm-blooded creatures and the planet’s core. Harnessing just a fraction of that energy could provide clean, renewable, inexpensive energy for everyone. The team from Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have even developed a device to accomplish this seemingly impossible task.

It works like a solar panel – but the device would have two plates. One would be close to the ground to catch the emanating infrared heat, and a lower-temperature one above it that would release the power. The heat difference between the plates lets the device generate energy. Although the device could work in theory, there is still a lot of work to be done. Currently it would only be able to produce a few watts per square meter each day. It could be used as a back-up for solar power setups, but hopefully the technology will progress enough to stand on its own in a few years.

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