Wang Jing, Wang Gao, Chen Huaicheng, Liu Yanping, Wang Peilong, Yuan Daming, Ma Xingyu, Xu Xiangyu, Cheng Zhengdong, Ji Baohua, Yang Mingcheng, Shuai Jianwei, Ye Fangfu, Wang Jin, Jiao Yang, Liu Liyu
Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, 325001, Zhejiang, China.
School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Oct 14;15(1):8853. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53123-6.
Maximizing materials utilization efficiency via enhancing their reconfigurability and multifunctionality offers a promising avenue in addressing the global challenges in sustainability. To this end, significant efforts have been made in developing reconfigurable multifunctional smart materials, which can exhibit remarkable behaviors such as morphing and self-healing. However, the difficulty in efficiently manipulating and controlling matter at the building block level with manageable cost and complexity, which is crucial to achieving superior responsiveness to environmental clues and stimuli, has significantly hindered the further development of such smart materials. Here we introduce a concept of Robo-Matter, which can be activated and controlled through external information exchange at the building block level, to enable a high-level of controllability, mutability and versatility for reconfigurable multifunctional smart materials. Using specially designed micro-robot building blocks with symmetry-breaking active motion modes, tunable anisotropic interactions, and interactive coupling with a programmable spatial-temporal dynamic light field, we demonstrate an emergent Robot-Matter duality, which enables a spectrum of desirable behaviors spanning from matter-like properties such as ultra-fast self-assembly and adaptivity, to robot-like properties including active force output, smart healing, smart morphing and infiltration. Our work demonstrates a promising direction for designing next-generation smart materials and large-scale robotic swarms.
通过提高材料的可重构性和多功能性来最大化材料利用效率，为应对全球可持续发展挑战提供了一条有前景的途径。为此，人们在开发可重构多功能智能材料方面付出了巨大努力，这类材料可展现出诸如变形和自愈等显著特性。然而，以可管理的成本和复杂度在基本单元层面有效操纵和控制物质存在困难，而这对于实现对环境线索和刺激的卓越响应能力至关重要，这严重阻碍了此类智能材料的进一步发展。在此，我们引入“机器人物质”的概念，它可通过基本单元层面的外部信息交换来激活和控制，从而为可重构多功能智能材料实现高度的可控性、可变性和通用性。利用具有打破对称性的主动运动模式、可调谐各向异性相互作用以及与可编程时空动态光场的交互耦合的特殊设计的微型机器人基本单元，我们展示了一种新兴的机器人 - 物质二元性，它能实现一系列理想行为，从类似物质的特性如超快自组装和适应性，到类似机器人的特性包括主动力输出、智能修复、智能变形和渗透。我们的工作为设计下一代智能材料和大规模机器人集群展示了一个有前景的方向。
