AÑO
2021
CATEGORÍA
Cuerpo
OBJETIVOS
Industria, innovación e infraestructura
PAL. CLAVE
object, transform, 3d, biomimicry
PAÍS
United States of America
CRÉDITOS
Cornell University
LINK
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6360/210
3D-morphing skin
Transform a flat object into a 3D structure by inflating membranes
Technologies that use stretchable materials are increasingly important, yet we are unable to control how they stretch with much more sophistication than inflating balloons. Nature, however, demonstrates remarkable control of stretchable surfaces; for example, cephalopods can project hierarchical structures from their skin in milliseconds for a wide range of textural camouflage. Inspired by cephalopod muscular morphology, we developed synthetic tissue groupings that allowed programmable transformation of two-dimensional (2D) stretchable surfaces into target 3D shapes. The synthetic tissue groupings consisted of elastomeric membranes embedded with inextensible textile mesh that inflated to within 10% of their target shapes by using a simple fabrication method and modeling approach. These stretchable surfaces transform from flat sheets to 3D textures that imitate natural stone and plant shapes and camouflage into their background environments.