In the November Scientific AmericanThomas A. Campbell, Skylar Tibbits and Banning Garrett explain how researchers are creating one-piece objects that can change form or function in an intentional, programmable fashion: “robots without the robots,” as one of the authors said. When the authors wrote their article, they had only gone as far as developing proof-of-principle programmable objects—for example, a flat, 3-D printed polymer sheet that folds into an octahedron when submerged in water. Today Tibbits and collaborators, including his colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Self-Assembly Lab, M.I.T. mathematician Erik Demaine and product designer Christophe Guberan, along with engineers and designers at the materials company Carbitex and the design firm Autodesk revealed shape-changing sheets of wood fiber, textiles, hybrid plastics and carbon fiber. The researchers hope that these new materials show that programmable matter is no longer just a curiosity—it is here and ready for commercial development. Here’s a look at some of those inventions.—The Editors
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To make carbon fiber that will morph in response to heat, light or moisture the researchers embedded various materials within a sheet of flexible carbon fiber (CX6) made by Carbitex.Programmable carbon fiber is being developed in collaboration with Briggs Automotive Company to create morphable car panels to control aerodynamics.
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