Digital light 3D printing of a polymer composite featuring robustness, self-healing, recyclability and tailorable mechanical properties

Producing lightweight structures with high weight-specific strength and stiffness, self-healing abilities, and recyclability, is highly attractive for engineering applications such as aerospace, biomedical devices, and smart robots. Most self-healing polymer systems used to date for mechanical components lack 3D printability and satisfactory load-bearing capacity. Here, we report a new self-healable polymer composite for Digital Light Processing 3D Printing, by combining two monomers with distinct mechanical characteristics. It shows a desirable and superior combination of properties among 3D printable self-healing polymers, with tensile strength and elastic modulus up to 49 MPa and 810 MPa, respectively. Benefiting from dual dynamic bonds between the linear chains, a healing efficiency of above 80% is achieved after heating at a mild temperature of 60 °C without additional solvents. Printed objects are also endowed with multi-materials assembly and recycling capabilities, allowing robotic components to be easily reassembled or recycled after failure. Mechanical properties and deformation behaviour of printed composites and lattices can be tuned significantly to suit various practical applications by altering formulation. Lattice structures with three different architectures were printed and tested in compression: honeycomb, re-entrant, and chiral. They can regain their structural integrity and stiffness after damage, which is of great value for robotic applications. This study extends the performance space of composites, providing a pathway to design printable architected materials with simultaneous mechanical robustness/healability, efficient recoverability, and recyclability

Control-based 4D printing: adaptive 4D-printed systems

Building on the recent progress of four-dimensional (4D) printing to produce dynamic structures, this study aimed to bring this technology to the next level by introducing control-based 4D printing to develop adaptive 4D-printed systems with highly versatile multi-disciplinary applications, including medicine, in the form of assisted soft robots, smart textiles as wearable electronics and other industries such as agriculture and microfluidics. This study introduced and analysed adaptive 4D-printed systems with an advanced manufacturing approach for developing stimuli-responsive constructs that organically adapted to environmental dynamic situations and uncertainties as nature does. The adaptive 4D-printed systems incorporated synergic integration of three-dimensional (3D)-printed sensors into 4D-printing and control units, which could be assembled and programmed to transform their shapes based on the assigned tasks and environmental stimuli. This paper demonstrates the adaptivity of these systems via a combination of proprioceptive sensory feedback, modeling and controllers, as well as the challenges and future opportunities they present

Digital technologies and 4D customized design: challenging conventions with responsive design

Digital design tools are rapidly changing and blurring the boundaries between design disciplines. By extension, the relationship between humans and products is also changing, to the point where opportunities are emerging for products that can co-evolve with their human users over time. This chapter highlights how these ‘4D products' respond to the vision laid out three decades ago for ubiquitous computing, and have the potential to enhance human experiences by creating more seamless human-centered relationships with technology. These developments are examined in context with broader shifts in sociocultural and environmental concerns, as well as similar developments being researched in Responsive Architecture, 4D printing and systems designed to empower individuals during the design process through interactive, parametric model platforms. Technology is fundamentally changing the way designers create physical products, and new understandings are needed to positively guide these changes.Arts, Education & Law Group, Queensland College of ArtNo Full Tex

AutoFac: The Perpetual Robot Machine

Robotics currently lacks fully autonomous capabilities, especially where task knowledge is incomplete and optimal robotic solutions cannot be pre-engineered. The intersection of evolutionary robotics, artificial life and embodied artificial intelligence presents a promising paradigm for generating multitask problem-solvers suitable for adapting over extended periods in unexplored, remote and hazardous environments. To address the automation of evolving robotic systems, we propose fully autonomous, embodied artificial-life factories and laboratories, situated in various environments as multi-task problem-solvers. Such integrated factories and laboratories would be adaptive solution designers, producing fit-for-purpose physical robots with accelerated artificial evolution that experiment to continually discover new tasks. Such tasks would be stepping-stones towards accomplishing given mission objectives over extended periods (days to decades). Rather than being purely speculative, prerequisite technologies to realize such factories have been experimentally demonstrated. Currently, vast scientific and enterprise opportunities await in applications such as asteroid mining, terraforming, space and deep sea exploration, though no suitable solution exists. The proposed embodied artificial-life factories and laboratories, termed: AutoFac, use robot production equipment run by artificial evolution controllers to collect and synthesize environmental information (from robotic sensory systems). Such information is merged with current needs and mission objectives to create new robot embodiment and task definitions that are environmentally adapted and balance task-oriented behavior with exploration. AutoFac is thus generalist (deployable in many environments) but continually produces specialist solutions within such environments — a perpetual robot machine

Plant-Morphing Strategies and Plant-Inspired Soft Actuators Fabricated by Biomimetic Four-Dimensional Printing: A Review

From Frontiers via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: collection 2021, received 2021-01-10, accepted 2021-03-09, epub 2021-05-04Publication status: PublishedFor prey, seeding, and protection, plants exhibit ingenious adaptive motions that respond autonomously to environmental stimuli by varying cellular organization, anisotropic orientation of cellulose fibers, mechanical instability design, etc. Notably, plants do not leverage muscle and nerves to produce and regulate their motions. In contrast, they harvest energy from the ambient environment and compute through embodied intelligence. These characteristics make them ideal candidates for application in self-morphing devices. Four-dimensional (4D) printing is a bottom-up additive manufacturing method that builds objects with the ability to change shape/properties in a predetermined manner. A versatile motion design catalog is required to predict the morphing processes and final states of the printed parts. This review summarizes the morphing and actuation mechanisms of plants and concludes with the recent development of 4D-printed smart materials inspired by the locomotion and structures of plant systems. We provide analyses of the challenges and our visions of biomimetic 4D printing, hoping to boost its application in soft robotics, smart medical devices, smart parts in aerospace, etc

Artificial intelligence and smart vision for building and construction 4.0: Machine and deep learning methods and applications

This article presents a state-of-the-art review of the applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL) in building and construction industry 4.0 in the facets of architectural design and visualization; material design and optimization; structural design and analysis; offsite manufacturing and automation; construction management, progress monitoring, and safety; smart operation, building management and health monitoring; and durability, life cycle analysis, and circular economy. This paper presents a unique perspective on applications of AI/DL/ML in these domains for the complete building lifecycle, from conceptual stage, design stage, construction stage, operational and maintenance stage until the end of life. Furthermore, data collection strategies using smart vision and sensors, data cleaning methods (post-processing), data storage for developing these models are discussed, and the challenges in model development and strategies to overcome these challenges are elaborated. Future trends in these domains and possible research avenues are also presented

Politiouretanos termoestables vitriméricos con propiedades mejoradas de reciclabilidad

En aquesta tesi s'ha avançat en l'estudi de xarxes termoestables de politiouretan (PTU) reciclables, gràcies al bescanvi dinàmic entre grups tiouretà. Els materials s'han preparat per reacció entre tiols i isocianats polifuncionals, tant en condicions àcides com bàsiques. A més, s'han estudiat les aplicacions d'aquests materials com a materials reciclables, autoreparables i com a matrius de materials compostos. Buscant una major sostenibilitat, s'ha estudiat l'activitat catalítica d'alternatives als compostos d'estany (IV), els més utilitzats a escala industrial. També s'han preparat tiols a partir de derivats de la biomassa, i s'ha estudiat el seu paper com substitut de tiols derivats de combustibles fòssils.En esta tesis se ha avanzado en el estudio de redes termoestables de politiouretano (PTU) reciclables, debido al intercambio dinámico entre grupos tiouretano. Los materiales se han preparado por reacción entre tioles e isocianatos polifuncionales, tanto en condiciones ácidas como básicas. Además, se han estudiado las aplicaciones de estos materiales como materiales reciclables y autorreparables, y como matrices de composites. En búsqueda de una mayor sostenibilidad, se ha estudiado la actividad catalítica de alternativas a los compuestos de estaño (IV), los más empleados a nivel industrial. También se han preparado tioles a partir de derivados de la biomasa, y se ha estudiado su papel como sustituto de tioles derivados de combustibles fósiles.In this thesis, progress has been made in the study of recyclable polythiourethane (PTU) thermosetting networks, due to the dynamic exchange between thiourethane groups. The materials have been prepared by reaction between polyfunctional thiols and isocyanates, both under acidic and basic conditions. In addition, the applications of these materials as recyclable and self-healing materials and as matrix composite have been studied. In search of a greater sustainability, the catalytic activity of alternatives to tin (IV) compounds, the most widely used at an industrial level, has been studied. Different thiols have also been prepared from biomass derivatives, and their role as a substitute for thiols derived from fossil fuels has been studied