That's a fascinating idea - wearing a suit of materials that could stiffen, expand, and contract with the application of electricity. Memory metal does seems fairly well a natural for that. Interestingly, the talk never mentions them.
I appreciate the speaker's sense of humor as he goes through each of the other options
- dielectric polymers - perfect except for needing "tens of thousands of volts to operate...enough to give you a pretty nasty electric shock" (4:46)
- carbon nanotube aerogel - perfect except for also needing tens of thousands of volts to operate
- nylon fishing line muscles - relies on heat, much faster to heat up (and contract) than to cool down (and release)
- solid state actuators - either fast or strong but not currently both
- architectured materials - the current choice of the speaker's research group
The use of computer simulations to design materials - 3d printable structures - to predict the flexibility and changing shape of the material is really interesting.
And I'm amazed that the research group is looking at 3d printed materials - assumedly polymer materials - was the outcome.
I'd very much like to see larger version of the materials that the speaker demonstrates (much too far from the camera) at 11:45. It's made from laser sintered nylon.
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