Bioinspired Artificial Homeostatic Multi-functional Material Microsystems (AHM3) Based on Self-Sustaining Autonomi Adaptive Structures

Abstract

This proposal seeks to apply the concept of biological “homeostasis” to design, create, and investigate non-conventional Artificial Homeostatic Multifunctional Material Microsystems (AHM3)that are capable of real-time sensing-and-adapting to regulate local conditions including temperature, air pressure, and light at a constant level against environment perturbations. The objectives include: (i) Identifying the requisite design criteria and working principle of AHM3 based on the structure-property relationship using computational simulation and experimental integrative manufacturing. (ii) Establishing a multifunctional platform that self-regulates four exemplary properties - temperature, O2/CO2 pressure, pH, and light. (iii) Characterizing the integration and performance of multiple self-regulations to elucidate the rich dynamic physics and mechanics through a combination of experiments and computational modeling. The artificial homeostasis will be achieved by developing bioinspired adaptively reconfigurable structures with built-in chemo-mechanical feedback loops. The hierarchical microstructure consists of stimuli-responsive hydrogel actuating on demand to control various chemical reactions (producing/absorbing heat, O2/CO2, or light), to rectify local condition fluctuations. This project is expected to yield a new broad-based materials platform for autonomous regulation with significant modularity and design flexibility, permitting exploratory studies of adaptive reconfiguration. With joint experimental-computational efforts, the research will elucidate the principle of design and integration of the hierarchical hybrid material systems, understand the physics of the sensing-actuating sequence in the mechano-chemical signal transduction, and discover the rich dynamic behaviors in the regulating multiple signals in different self-oscillation modes.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Jul 28, 2017
Source ID
FA95501710311

Entities

People

  • Ximin He

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • United States Air Force
  • University of California, Los Angeles

Tags

Readers

  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Robotics and Automation.

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology