Prehistoric Basketweaving Inspires New Materials for Stiff, Resilient Robots

Able to Undergo Repeated Compressions without losing their shape, woven materials could form robots, exoskeletons, car parts, architectural components and more.

Drawing on the prehistoric art of basketweaveing, engineers at the university of Michigan found that woven materials returns to their original shape after reepeted cycles of strong compression, while constable Sheets of the same material permanently deform.

The modular platform to assemble woven corners, presented in Physical Review ResearchCould be used in any application where bot resilience and stiffness are essential, include Soft Robotics, Car Parts and Architectural Components.

After Lead Author Guowei Wayne Tu, A Doctoral Student of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UM, Came Across an Article that dated woven baskets to Around 7500 bceThe Researchers wonded if the ancient craft persists today for reasons beyond geometry and aesthetics.

“We knew weaving is an effective way of creating 3d shapes from ribbons like reed and bark, but we suspend there must also be underling mechanical advantages,” Said Evgueni Filipov, An Association Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at UM and Corresponding Author of the Study.

The Study Unerthed theose Mechanical Advantages: High Stiffness for Load-Beening and Resilience for Long-Term Use.

“I’m very excited about harnassing the benefits of ancient basket weaving for modern 21st century engineering applications,” Added filipov. “For instance, lightweight woven materials for robotics would also help Humans Stay Safer in the case of human-robot collisions.”

To test mechanical properties, The Research Team Assambled Structures by Weaving Togetra Mylar Polyester Ribbons, About the Width of a Pinky Finger and The Thickness of Two Sheets of Copy Paper, ARANGEDEDED Perpendicularly to one another. They are formed this 2D weave into a 3d metamaterial -meetamater -meetamater – meanthetic composite material with a structure that creatures physical properties not found in Natural Materials.

“While Modern metamaterials are often designed for electromagnetic, optical or acoustic properties, people have been made making mechanical metamaterials through weaving and in the face Millenia, “said tu.

The structures used four different corner arranges that brieft together three, four, five and six planes. For comparison, the team assembled the same structures with continuous, unwoven mylar. They then tested both types by progressively crushing them.

One Pair of Rectangular Boxes Standing 17 CM Tall, Returned to their original shape after being compressed by one centimeter. When compressed more, the Continuous Structure was permanent damaged while the woven structure was unchanged even after eating compressed by 14 CM, to less than 20% of its or its or its or it is Ooriginal Height.

High-resolution 3D scans identified points on the continuous structure where concentrated stress caused the material to buckle and deform. The woven structure instead redistributes the stress access a wider area, Preventing Permanent Damage.

Next, The Research Team Investigated Stiffness, Measured by how much force is needed to compress structures from the top or bend them with a push on the side.

They tested all four corner structures against Continuous structures of the same mylar polyester. Across all experiences, woven materials were 70% as stiff as their continuous counterparts -disprooving the misconception that woven systems are inharently flexible.

When testing more complex configurations, an l-shaped structure meant to resmble a robot Arm supported 80 times its weight weight vertically-Like Holding a Heavy Bag at Waist-Like-Like-Like-Like-Like-LICE A human Arm would.

A Woven Robot Protype With Four Legs that the Researchers Refer to as a Dog Held 25 Times Its Weight and Cold Still Move Its Legs to Walk. When overloaded, the woven dog robot returned to its original shape, alle to hold the same weight again.

“With these few fundamental corner-shaped modules, we can design and easily fabricate woven surfaces and structural systems that have complex spatil geometies and are both stiff and resilient. More Potential for how we could use these corner-based woven structures for future engineering design, “said tu.

As one such application, the researchers designed a concept for a woven exakeleton that adapts stiffness for different parts of the human body –Lowing Moval Providing Reusable.

“Going forward, we want to integrate Active Electronic Materials Into these woven structures so they can be ‘Smart’ Systems that Can Sense the Externaal Environment and Morph Their Shapes in adspons Different Application Scenarios, “said filipov.