Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Science. 2017 Oct 13;358(6360):210-214. doi: 10.1126/science.aan5627.
Technologies that use stretchable materials are increasingly important, yet we are unable to control how they stretch with much more sophistication than inflating balloons. Nature, however, demonstrates remarkable control of stretchable surfaces; for example, cephalopods can project hierarchical structures from their skin in milliseconds for a wide range of textural camouflage. Inspired by cephalopod muscular morphology, we developed synthetic tissue groupings that allowed programmable transformation of two-dimensional (2D) stretchable surfaces into target 3D shapes. The synthetic tissue groupings consisted of elastomeric membranes embedded with inextensible textile mesh that inflated to within 10% of their target shapes by using a simple fabrication method and modeling approach. These stretchable surfaces transform from flat sheets to 3D textures that imitate natural stone and plant shapes and camouflage into their background environments.
使用可拉伸材料的技术变得越来越重要，但我们还无法像给气球充气那样，对其拉伸方式进行更加精细的控制。然而，大自然却对可拉伸表面展现出了非凡的控制能力；例如，头足类动物可以在几毫秒内从皮肤中弹出分层结构，实现多种纹理伪装。受头足类肌肉形态的启发，我们开发出了合成组织群组，可将二维（2D）可拉伸表面编程为目标 3D 形状。这些合成组织群组由弹性薄膜组成，其中嵌入了不可拉伸的纺织网格，通过使用简单的制造方法和建模方法，这些弹性薄膜可以膨胀到目标形状的 10%以内。这些可拉伸表面从扁平薄片变成了模仿天然石头和植物形状的 3D 纹理，并能融入其背景环境中实现伪装。
