MIT researchers developed a method for 3D printing materials with “tunable mechanical properties, that sense how they are moving and interacting with the environment.”
Possible applications for the technology include wearable devices that can detect how a person is moving or interacting with the world around them, as well as in the field of robotics where the material could be used to create robots that understand their posture and movements.
To create the sensing structures, the researchers began with 3D-printed lattice materials.
They incorporated networks of air-filled channels into the structure of the materials during the printing process.
They were then able to get feedback on how the material was moving by measuring how the pressure changed within these channels when the structure was squeezed, twisted, or stretched.
“The idea with this work is that we can take any material that can be 3D-printed and have a simple way to route channels throughout it so we can get sensorization with structure. And if you use really complex materials, then you can have motion, perception, and structure all in one,” said co-lead author Lillian Chin, a graduate student in the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
The team’s research paper was published in Science Advances.