Digital Texture Voxels for Stretchable Morphing Skin Applications
Abstract
The skin of the cephalopod is a 3D display, where the papillae muscles control the protrusion of each voxel by several millimeters out of the skin plane, create hierarchical textures, and collectively change the overall skin pattern in a fraction of a second. A material system capable of mimicking this response using electromechanical actuation of twisted spiral artificial muscles (TSAMs) is presented in this study. TSAMs leverage the mechanics of their twisted geometry to extend out of plane by 8 mm, corresponding to 2000% strain using a voltage of only 0.02 V mm−1. They are made of polymer fibers wrapped with a helical metal wire. These actuators are assembled on a stretchable skin with the required flexible electrical connections to form an array of digital texture voxels (DTVs). The DTV array produces arbitrary 3D surface patterns on‐demand, and provides opportunities to control hydrodynamic drag, camouflage, and haptic displays.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 29, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1002/admt.201900260
Entities
People
- Caterina Lamuta
- Honglu He
- Kaihao Zhang
- Michael Rogalski
- Nancy Sottos
- Sameh Tawfick
Organizations
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign
- University of Iowa