Communications of the ACM
Automated System Generates Robotic Parts for Novel Tasks
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed an automated system that can design and print in three dimensions complex robotic parts optimized according to a large number of specifications.
Credit: Subramanian Sundaram
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an automated system that can design and print in three dimensions complex robotic parts optimized according to a large number of specifications—a task that would be staggeringly difficult for humans to do manually.
The researchers demonstrated the system by fabricating actuators that show different monochrome images at different angles. For example, one actuator portrays a Vincent Van Gogh portrait when laid flat, and "The Scream" by Edvard Munch when it is tilted at an angle and activated.
The team also three-dimensionally (3D) printed water lilies with petals equipped with arrays of actuators and hinges, that folds up in response to magnetic fields run through conductive fluids.
Said MIT’s Subramanian Sundaram, "Our ultimate goal is to automatically find an optimal design for any problem, and then use the output of our optimized design to fabricate it."
From MIT News
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